PART  I 
THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   STORY 


ss. 


Published  by  James  Clarke  <g  C° 


THE 


OLD  TESTAMENT  STORY 


IKetolD  for  goung 


BY 

W.   H.   BENNETT,   M.A. 

HACKNEY  AND  NEW  COLLEGES,   LONDON 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS 


THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1907 

All  rights  reserved 


Tf: 


- 


COPYRIGHT,  1898, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Norfoootr 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  -  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


I 

THE  PATRIARCHS 
CHAPTER  I 

ISRAEL   IN   THE   WILDERNESS 

THE  Bible  tells  us  the  story  of  the  Jews  and  of 
Jesus  Christ.  All  the  Old  Testament  and  almost  all 
the  New  were  written  by  Jews,  and  Jesus  Christ  was 
born  a  Jew.  The  history  of  the  Jews  is  part  of  the 
story  of  Jesus  Christ,  because  it  explains  how  God 
prepared  the  way  for  Christ ;  how  the  teaching  of 
the  prophets  helped  men  to  understand  the  words 
of  Christ ;  and  how  wealth  and  poverty,  victory  and 
defeat,  imperial  power  and  shameful  slavery,  alike 
fashioned  the  Jews  to  be  kinsfolk  of  the  Saviour  of 
the  world. 

The  Jews,  as  we  call  them,  called  themselves 
Israel,  or  the  children  of  Israel,  or,  as  we  should 
say,  the  Israelites ;  and  so,  in  speaking  of  Old 
Testament  times,  we  too  will  call  them  Israel  or 
the  Israelites. 

In  this  chapter  we  go  back  to  the  first  beginnings 
of  the  Bible  and  of  Israel.  To-day  there  are  mill- 

15723 


4  THE   PATRIARCHS 

ions  of  Jews  scattered  all  over  the  world,  and  there 
are  very  many  times  more  Christians.  But  in  the 
beginning  the  Israelites,  who  were  the  ancestors  of 
the  Jews,  and  whose  faith  in  God  was  the  first  step 
to  Christianity,  were  a  few  handfuls  of  people  in  a 
corner  of  Western  Asia.  The  records  of  their  laws 
and  customs,  and  the  stories  they  told  of  the  events 
of  their  history,  became,  under  God's  guidance,  the 
beginning  of  the  Bible.  Very  soon  I  will  tell  you 
some  of  these  stories,  but  first  let  us  try  to  picture 
the  .people  by  whom  and  about  whom  the  stories 
were  told. 

In  these  early  days  —  so  early  that  there  are  no 
dates  for  you  to  learn  about  them  —  the  people  was 
not  at  first  called  Israel ;  but  the  ancestors  of  the 
Israelites  were  nomad  tribes  wandering  like  the 
Bedouin  through  many  lands.  They  were  closely 
related  to  the  Arabs  in  race  and  language,  and  very 
similar  in  manner  of  life,  so  that  we  might  almost 
call  them  Arabs.  They  lived  in  tents,  not  little 
white  cones  of  canvas,  such  as  we  see  in  soldiers' 
camps,  but  large  black  tents  of  goats'  hair,  often 
divided  into  two  or  three  rooms.  Their  property 
was  camels,  cattle,  sheep  and  goats,  and  slaves.1 
With  these  the  Israelite  chiefs,  or  sheikhs,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  their  clans,  wandered  to  and 
fro,  seeking  water  and  pasture  for  their  flocks. 
Now  they  would  encamp  at  some  oasis  in  the  desert, 

1  The  picture  of  a  "  Fellah  "  or  peasant  moving  might  perhaps 
serve  for  one  of  Abraham's  followers. 


ISRAEL   IN  THE  WILDERNESS  5 

now  in  the  pasture  lands  of  Palestine.  There 
they  were  neighbours  of  the  Canaanites  and  Philis- 
tines in  their,  towns.  Often  difficulties  arose  be- 
tween the  Israelites  and  their  neighbours  as  to  the 
use  of  the  land  and  the  wells.  Sometimes  such 


FELLAH  "MOVING 


quarrels  were  settled  by  friendly  agreement,  some- 
times by  righting.  And  all  the  men  of  a  tribe 
counted  each  other  brethren,  and  stood  by  one 
another  in  their  quarrels  ;  and  if  one  was  killed, 
all  the  rest  held  it  a  most  sacred  duty  to  punish 


6  THE   PATRIARCHS 

his  murderer.  So  that,  though  the  Israelites  and 
their  neighbours  were  brave  and  warlike,  they  did 
not  fight  without  due  cause,  lest  they  should  be 
pursued  by  the  untiring  vengeance  of  the  kinsfolk 
of  the  slain.  We  have  hardly  any  stories  of  battles 
fought  by  the  patriarchs. 

Sometimes  in  their  early  wanderings  the  patri- 
archs and  their  followers  encamped  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  great  cities  of  Egypt  —  cities  that 
were  as  great  and  wonderful  in  their  day  as  London 
and  Paris  are  now.  These  Arab  sheikhs  and  their 
clansmen  mingled  in  the  motley  crowd  of  many 
nations  that  thronged  the  streets  of  Thebes  or 
Memphis,  and  admired  the  magnificence  of  palaces 
and  temples,  and  the  grandeur  of  great  kings  and 
princes.  Yet  they  thought  it  noblet  arid  better  to 
wander  at  will  through  the  wide  desert  than  to 
live  cooped  up  in  houses  and  shut  in  by  city  walls. 
They  told  how,  in  days  gone  by,  their  fathers  had 
lived  among  the  Chaldeans,  who  had  cities  as  won- 
derful as  Thebes  and  Memphis,  and  who  were  as 
great  and  wise  as  the  Egyptians ;  and  how  God, 
Whom  the  Israelites  called  Jehovah,  had  sent  them 
away  from  Chaldea  to  live  a  nomad  life  in  the  past- 
ures of  Syria,  that  they  might  the  better  worship 
and  serve  Him.  And  though  in  later  times  the 
Israelites  had  cities  and  palaces  and  temples  of 
their  own,  they  always  looked  back  to  their  life  in 
tents  as  a  holy  and  happy  time,  when  their  fathers 
lived  very  near  to  God. 


ISRAEL   IN   THE    WILDERNESS  9 

So  long  after,  in  the  time  of  the  kings  of  Israel 
and  Judah,  men  still  loved  to  tell  the  ancient  stories 
of  the  patriarchs,  as  the  Israelite  herdsmen  round 
the  camp  fire  and  the  maidens  at  the  well  told  them 
in  days  of  old.  Some  of  these  stories  are  written 
for  you  here. 


50  BO 


&U*hedlffJimej  Otrke  4  Co, 


Stanfonfa  Gecg'txattL 


CHAPTER  II 

ABRAHAM 

ABRAHAM  and  his  wife  Sarah  lived  amongst  the 
Chaldees,  by  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  two  great 
rivers  north  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  at  a  place  called 
Ur.  And  Jehovah  said  to  Abraham,  "  Leave  your 
own  country  and  your  home  and  your  friends,  and 
go  to  another  country,  to  which  I  will  show  you 
the  way.  And  I  will  make  you  a  great  nation, 
and  I  will  bless  you,  and  I  will  bless  those  who 
bless  you,  and  curse  those  who  curse  you ;  and  the 
best  that  a  man  can  wish  for  his  friend  will  be  that 
he  may  be  as  happy  as  Abraham." 

Abraham  did  as  Jehovah  told  him.  Abraham 
and  Sarah  had  no  children,  but  their  nephew  Lot 

10 


ABRAHAM  11 

went  with  them.  They  left  their  own  country,  and 
journeyed  for  many  weeks  with  their  camels  and 
flocks  and  herds,  their  slaves  and  followers,  till  they 
came  to  Shechem  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  There 
Jehovah  appeared  to  Abraham,  and  promised  to  give 
that  land  to  his  children.  And  Abraham  built  an 
altar  to  Jehovah  at  Shechem ;  and  he  kept  on  jour- 
neying southward,  and  built  another  altar  at  Bethel. 
And  after  journeying  into  Egypt,  Abraham  and  4Lot 
came  back  to  the  altar  at  Bethel ;  and  each  of  them 
had  a  great  many  sheep  and  cattle  and  tents  and 
followers  ;  and  there  was  not  room  for  them  together 
in  the  pastures  and  at  the  wells.  Then  Abraham's 
herdsmen  and  Lot's  herdsmen  began  to  quarrel  with 
each  other.  And  Abraham  said  to  Lot,  "We  are 
kinsfolk,  we  cannot  quarrel,  and  we  must  not  let 
our  servants  quarrel.  We  must  separate,  that  each 
of  us  may  have  room  for  his  flocks  and  herds.  Do 
you  choose  a  place  for  yourself  :  if  you  take  the 
left  hand,  I  will  go  to  the  right ;  or,  if  you  take 
the  right  hand,  I  will  go  to  the  left." 

Lot  looked  and  saw^that  the  land  by  the  Jordan 
was  well  watered,  and  he  chose  all  that  land  for 
himself,  and  moved  there  with  all  his  tents  and 
cattle  and  followers.  Then  he  went  to  live  in 
Sodom,  a  city  of  that  land;  though  the  people  of 
Sodom  were  very  wicked. 

But  after  Lot  had  gone,  Jehovah  said  to  Abraham, 
"Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  every  way,  north, 
south,  east,  and  west :  for  all  that  land  will  I  give 


12  THE   PATRIARCHS 

to  you  and  your  children.  Your  children  shall  be 
like  the  dust  of  the  earth  ;  if  any  one  can  count  the 
dust,  he  will  be  able  to  count  your  descendants." 
And  Abraham  journeyed  to  Hebron,  and  built  an- 
other altar. 

But  while  Lot  was  living  in  Sodom,  four  kings 
from  the  East  invaded  Canaan.  The  kings  of  the 
Canaanite  cities  had  been  subject  to  one  of  these 
kings,  Chedorlaomer,  king  of  Elam,  and  had  paid 
tribute  to  him  for  twelve  years.  But  in  the  thir- 
teenth year  they  rebelled,  arid  Chedorlaomer  came 
with  three  other  Eastern  kings  to  punish  the  Ca- 
naanites  and  make  them  pay  their  tribute.  These 
four  kings  ravaged  the  country  far  and  wide  till 
they  came  towards  Sodom,  and  the  king  of  Sodom 
and  four  neighbouring  kings  got  together  an  army 
and  fought  against  Chedorlaomer.  But  the  four 
Eastern  kings  beat  the  five  Canaanite  kings,  and 
the  kings  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  were  killed. 
Then  Chedorlaomer  and  his  allies  plundered  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah  ;  they  took  all  the  food  they  could 
find,  and  everything  else  that  was  worth  carrying 
away,  and  a  number  of  prisoners,  men,  women,  and 
children,  and  set  off  on  their  homeward  march. 
Amongst  these  prisoners,  of  whom  they  intended  to 
make  slaves,  were  Lot  and  his  wife  and  daughters. 

But  -one  of  Lot's  servants  escaped,  and  went  and 
told  Abraham  that  his  nephew  was  being  carried  off 
as  a  slave.  Then  Abraham  started  with  his  tribe 
of  more  than  three  hundred  men  to  rescue  Lot. 


ABE AH AM  13 

The  invaders  were  marching  northwards,  by  way 
of  Damascus,  and  Abraham  followed  on  their  track 
for  some  days.  At  last  he  overtook  them,  far  away 
in  the  north  ;  he  surprised  their  camp  at  night,  and 
they  fled  panic-stricken  by  the  sudden  attack,  so  that 
Abraham  rescued  Lot  and  the  other  prisoners,  and 
recovered  the  plunder,  and  took  them  back  to  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah.  On  the  way  there  came  out  to  meet 
Abraham,  Melchizedek,  king  of  Salem,  or  Jerusalem. 
Melchizedek  was  also,  like  many  ancient  kings,  the 
priest  of  his  city  —  the  priest  of  El  Elyon,  or  God 
Most  High,  the  name  under  which  God  was  then 
worshipped  at  Jerusalem.  He  brought  bread  and 
wine  for  Abraham  and  his  followers,  and  blessed 
Abraham,  who  gave  him  a  tenth  of  the  spoil.  The 
new  king  of  Sodom,  too,  came  to  meet  Abraham  ; 
he  offerecf  to  let  Abraham  keep  all  the  other  plunder 
if  he  would  release  the  prisoners  whom  he  had  res- 
cued. "  Give  me  the  men  and  women,"  said  the 
king  of  Sodom,  "and  take  the  goods  for  your- 
self." 

"I  have  sworn,"  answered  Abraham,  uby  Jehovah, 
El  Elyon,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  I  will  not 
take  even  a  thread  or  a  shoe-latchet,  lest  you  should 
say,  I  have  made  Abraham  rich."  So  Lot  and  his 
wife  and  daughters  went  back  to  Sodom,  and  lived 
there  till  Jehovah  rained  fire  and  brimstone  upon 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  destroyed  them,  and  all 
the  people  in  them,  because  of  their  wickedness. 
God  told  Abraham  of  His  purpose,  and  Abraham 


14  THE   PATRIARCHS 

entreated  God  to  spare  Sodom,  and  God  promised 
to  spare  it  if  there  were  ten  righteous  men  in  it. 
But  Lot  and  his  family  were  the  only  righteous 
people,  and  God  sent  angels  to  bring  them  out  of 
the  city. 


CHAPTER   III 

ISAAC 

GOD  often  promised  Abraham  that  his  descend- 
ants should  be  a  great  nation,  and  yet  Abraham  and 
Sarah  had  no  child  through  whom  these  promises 
could  be  fulfilled.  The  years  went  on,  and  they 
grew  very  old.  Abraham  Jiad  a  son  Ishmael  by 
another  wife,  a  slave  of  Sarah's ;  but  though 
Ishmael,  too,  became  the  father  of  a  nation,  the 
great  promises  made  to  Abraham  did  not  refer  to 
him.  God  promised  that  Abraham  and  Sarah  should 
have  a  son,  and  at  last  the  son  was  born.  Sarah 
called  his  name  Isaac,  "Laughter,"  because  it  seemed 
so  ridiculous  that  two  old  people  should  have  a  son. 
Now  that  Sarah  had  a  boy  of  her  own,  she  persuaded 
Abraham  to  send  Ishmael  and  his  mother  away,  in 
order  that  Ishmael  might  not  prevent  Isaac  from 
succeeding  his  father  as  head  of  the  tribe. 

"  After  these  things,"  the  story  goes  on,  perhaps 
when  Isaac  was  twelve  or  fourteen,  God  tried  Abra- 
ham, to  see  if  he  would  obey  Him  when  obedience 
was  very  hard.  In  ancient  times  men  chiefly  wor- 
shipped God  by  sacrifices,  by  offering  Him  gifts, 
and  especially  by  killing  animals  and  burning  part 
or  all  of  them  on  an  altar.  Oxen  and  sheep  were 

15 


6  THE   PATRIARCHS 

precious  possessions,  and  men  showed  their  love 
and  gratitude  and  loyalty  by  giving  God  their 
best.  But  a  man  had  possessions  even  more  pre- 
cious than  sheep  and  oxen,  he  had  his  children ; 
and  when  an  Eastern  people  was  specially  anxious 
to  show  its  devotion  to  God,  men  killed  and  burnt 
their  own  children  on  the  altar  as  sacrifices.  Such 
sacrifices  were  common  among  the  Canaanites,  and 
were  sometimes  offered  by  the  Israelites  themselves. 

"  After  these  things,"  then,  to  go  back  to  the 
Bible  story,  after  Isaac  was  born  and  Ishmael  sent 
away,  and  other  things  had  happened,  and  when 
Abraham  was  encamped  at  Beer-sheba,  in  the  south 
of  Palestine,  God  tried  Abraham,  and  said  to  him, 
"  Abraham." 

And  he  said,  "Here  am  I." 

God  said,  "  Take  now  thy  son,  thine  only  son 
Isaac,  whom  thou  lovest,  and  offer  him  up  as  a 
burnt-offering  on  one  of  the  mountains  which  I 
will  tell  thee  of."  So  Abraham  got  up  early  in  the 
morning,  and  saddled  an  ass,  and  took  with  him 
two  servants  and  his  son  Isaac ;  and  he  cleft  wood 
for  the  burnt-offering,  and  set  out  for  the  place  of 
which  God  had  told  him.  And  on  the  third  day 
of  their  journey,  Abraham  looked  and  saw  the  place 
afar  off ;  and  he  said  to  his  servants,  "  Stay  here 
with  the  ass ;  and  I  and  the  boy  will  go  yonder, 
and  will  worship,  and  come  back  to  you." 

Then  he  took  the  wood  for  the  burixt-offering 
and  laid  it  on  Isaac  his  son  ;  and  took  the  fire  and 


ISAAC  17 

the  knife  in  his  hand.  So  they  two  went  to- 
gether. 

And  Isaac  said  to  his  father,  "  My  father." 

He  said,  "Here  am  I,  my  son." 

"  Here  are  fire  and  wood,"  said  Isaac,  "  but  where 
is  the  sheep  for  the  burnt-offering  ?  " 

Abraham  said,  "  God  will  provide  Himself  a  sheep 
for  the  burnt-offering,  my  son."  So  they  went  both 
of  them  together,  until  they  came  to  the  place  of 
which  God  had  told  Abraham.  Then  he  built  an 
altar  and  laid  the  wood  in  order  on  it,  and  took 
Isaac  and  bound  him,  and  placed  him  on  the  altar 
over  the  wood.  And  Abraham  stretched  forth  his 
hand,  and  took  the  knife  to  kill  his  son. 

But  the  angel  of  God  called  to  him  out  of  heaven, 
"  Abraham  !  Abraham  !  " 

And  he  said,  "  Here  am  I." 

The  angel  of  God  said,  "  Do  not  lay  your  hand 
upon  the  boy  to  harm  him ;  for  now  I  know  that 
you  fear  God,  because  you  were  ready  to  give  me 
your  son,  your  only  son." 

Then  Abraham  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked, 
and  saw  behind  him  a  ram  caught  in  a  thicket  by 
its  horns ;  and  he  took  the  ram  and  offered  it  up 
for  a  burnt-offering  instead  of  Isaac  ;  and  Abraham 
and  Isaac  went  back  to  the  servants,  and  they  all 
went  together  to  Abraham's  camp  at  Beer-sheba. 

When  the  Israelites  read  this  story  they  under- 
stood that  God  had  never  intended  Abraham  to  kill 
Isaac,  and  that  He  did  not  wish  them  to  sacrifice 


18  THE   PATRIARCHS 

children  to  Him.  The  neighbouring  peoples  believed 
£hat  God  was  cruel  and  selfish,  and  wished  men  to 
worship  Him  by  making  themselves  uncomfortable 
ancLsad,  and  by  torturing  themselves  ;  but  the  revela- 
tiQnjwhich  God  gave  to  Israel  taught  them  that  God 
was  a  Father  to  His  people. 

When  Isaac  was  old  enough  to  marry,  Abraham, 
after  the  custom  of  those  times,  found  a  wife  for 
him.  He  would  not  let  Isaac  marry  any  of  their 
Canaanite  neighbours,  but  sent  Eliezer,  his  chief 
slave,  the  overseer  of  his  household,  to  his  own 
relations  in  the  East  for  a  wife  for  Isaac.  Eliezer 
took  ten  camels  loaded  with  provisions  for  the 
journey  and  presents  for  Isaac's  future  wife  and  her 
family,  and  journeyed  till  he  came  to  the  home  of 
Nahor,  Abraham's  brother,  in  Mesopotamia.  And 
in  the  evening,  at  the  time  when  women  go  to  draw 
water,  he  made  his  camels  kneel  down  outside  the 
town  by  the  well.  And  he  prayed  to  God  and  said : 

"  Jehovah,  God  of  my  master  Abraham,  send  me 
good  speed  to-day,  and  show  kindness  to  my  master 
Abraham.  May  the  maiden  to  whom  I  shall  say, 
4  Let  down  your  pitcher,  I  pray  you,  that  I  may 
drink,'  and  who  shall  say  to  me,  '  Drink,  and  I  will 
give  your  camels  drink  too  '  —  may  she  be  the  maiden 
whom  Thou  hast  chosen  for  Isaac's  wife." 

Before  he  had  done  speaking,  a  beautiful  girl, 
named  Rebekah,  Isaac's  cousin,  the  daughter  of 
Bethuel,  the  son  of  Nahor,  Abraham's  brother,  came 
to  the  well  with  her  pitcher  on  her  shoulder,  and 


WOMAN  CARRYING  WATER-JAR 
19 


ISAAC  21 

went  down  to  the  fountain  and  filled  her  pitcher, 
and  came  up  again.  Then  Eliezer  ran  to  meet  her 
and  said,  "  I  pray  you,  give  me  a  little  water  out  of 
your  pitcher." 

And  she  said,  "Drink,  my  lord." 

And  she  let  down  her  pitcher  quickly  on  her  hand 
and  gave  him  to  drink.  And  when  he  had  finished, 
she  said,  "  I  will  draw  water  for  your  camels  too, 
till  they  have  had  enough  to  drink." 

The  man  gazed  at  her  in  silence,  wondering 
whether  Jehovah  was  really  showing  him  that  she 
was  to  be  Isaac's  wife  ;  but  when  the  camels  had 
done  drinking,  he  took  a  nose-ring  and  bracelets  of 
gold,  and  said,  "  Whose  daughter  are  you  ?  Tell  me, 
I  pray  you.  Is  there  room  for  us  to  spend  the  night 
in  your  father's  house  ?  " 

She  answered,  "I  am  the  daughter  of  Bethuel, 
the  son  of  Nahor  and  his  wife  Milcah ;  we  have 
straw  and  fodder  for  the  camels,  and  room  for  you 
to  spend  the  night." 

Then  Eliezer  bowed  down  and  worshipped  Jeho- 
vah, and  said,  "  Blessed  be  Jehovah,  the  God  of  my 
master  Abraham,  who  has  not  failed  to  be  kind  and 
true  to  my  master,  and  has  led  me  to  the  home  of 
his  kinsfolk." 

While  he  was  thanking  God,  Rebekah  ran  to  the 
harem,  the  women's  rooms,  and  told  them  what  had 
happened.  Afterwards  her  brother  Laban  saw  the 
nose-ring  and  bracelets  of  gold,  and  his  sister  told 
him  about  Eliezer.  Then  Laban  ran  out  and  found 


22  THE    PATRIARCHS 

Eliezer  standing  by  the  camels  at  the  fountain,  and 
said,  "  Come  in,  thou  blessed  of  Jehovah;  why  do 
you  stand  without  ?  I  have  made  ready  for  you  and 
your  camels." 

So  Eliezer  went  to  the  house,  and  Laban  took 
off  the  camels'  harness  and  gave  them  straw  and 
fodder,  and  brought  water  that  Eliezer  and  his  men 
might  wash  their  feet.  Then  Laban  set  food  before 
him,  but  he  said,  "  I  will  not  eat  till  I  have  told  my 
errand." 

And  Laban  said,  "Speak  on." 

Then  Eliezer  told  him  the  whole  story  from  the 
beginning,  almost  in  the  same  words  as  I  have  told 
it  :  how  he  was  Abraham's  slave,  how  Abraham 
was  very  great  and  rich,  and  wished  his  son  Isaac 
to  marry  one  of  his  own  kinsfolk,  and  how  God  had 
shown  Eliezer  that  Rebekah  was  to  be  Isaac's  wife. 
"  And  now,"  he  said,  "  if  you  will  be  kind  and  true 
to  my  master,  tell  me,  and  if  not,  tell  me,  that  I 
may  turn  right  or  left." 

Then  Laban  answered,  "Jehovah  has  decided,  we 
can  say  nothing.  Here  is  Rebekah;  take  her  and 
go,  and  let  her  marry  your  master's  son,  according 
to  the  word  of  Jehovah." 

So  Eliezer  thanked  God,  and  brought  out  jewels 
of  silver  and  gold,  and  garments,  and  gave  them 
to  Rebekah,  and  gave  also  rich  presents  to  her 
brother  and  mother.  Then  they  all  feasted,  and 
Eliezer  and  his  men  spent  the  night  there,  and  early 
next  morning  he  said,  "  Send,  roe  away  to.  my  master.'* 


ISAAC  23 

But  her  brother  and  mother  said,  "Let  Rebekah 
stay  with  us  a  few  days." 

And  he  said,  "Do  not  hinder  me,  since  Jehovah 
has  prospered  me,  let  me  go  to  my  master." 

Then  they  said,  "Rebekah  shall  decide  for  her- 
self." Rebekah  was  eager  to  start  at  once,  so  they 
let  her  go,  and  wished  her  all  happiness,  and  said, 
"  O  our  sister,  mayest  thou  become  thousands  of 
myriads,  may  thy  descendants  possess  the  gate  of 
them  that  hate  them." 

So  Rebekah  and  her  foster-mother  and  her 
maidens  rode  away  on  the  camels  with  Eliezer  and 
his  men,  and  they  journeyed  many  days. 

Meanwhile,  Isaac  had  gone  to  live  at  a  place 
called  Beer-lahai-roi,  south  of  Judah ;  and  one  day 
as  he  was  walking  in  the  fields  in  the  evening,  he 
saw  camels  coming.  And  Rebekah,  for  these  were 
Eliezer's  camels,  looked  and  saw  a  man  coming 
towards  them  ;  and  she  said  to  Eliezer,  "  Who  is 
that  man  in  the  fields  walking  to  meet  us?" 

And  he  answered,  "  It  is  my  master  Isaac." 

Then  she  took  her  veil  and  covered  herself.  And 
Eliezer  told  Isaac  everything,  and  Isaac  married 
Rebekah  and  took  her  to  his  tent. 

The  end  of  this  story  says  nothing  about  Abraham 
—  perhaps  he  was  dead  before  Eliezer  came  back. 


CHAPTER  IV 

JACOB   AND   ESAU 

FOR  a  long  time  after  Isaac  and  Rebekah  were 
married  they  had  no  children ;  but  Isaac  prayed  to 
God,  and  He  gave  them  two  sons,  Esau  the  elder, 
and  Jacob  the  younger.  When  they  grew  up  Esau 
spent  his  time  chasing  deer  and  buffalo,  because  he 
was  a  clever  hunter;  but  Jacob  was  a  quiet  man, 
and  stayed  at  home  amongst  the  tents,  and  looked 
after  the  flocks  and  herds.  Esau  was  his  father's 
favourite,  for  Isaac  was  fond  of  game,  and  Jacob 
was  his  mother's  darling.  One  day  Jacob  was 
making  lentil  soup,  and  Esau  came  home  from  his 
hunting,  tired  and  hungry.  "  Make  haste,"  said  he 
to  Jacob,  "  and  give  me  some  of  that  red  stuff,  that 
red  stuff  there." 

But  Jacob  said  to  Esau,  "First  sell  me  your 
birthright." 

Now,  because  Esau  was  the  elder  son^  he  would 
have  had  the  birthright — that  is,  he  would  have 
been  the  head  of  the  tribe  after  Isaac's  death,  and 
the  heir  to  his  property.  Yet  Esau  said,  "  I  must 
die  sooner  or  later,  and  then  what  will  be  the  use 
of  my  birthright?" 

So  he  consented  to  sell  the  chieftainship  and  the 
inheritance  for  a  basin  of  soup.  Jacob  made  him 

24 


JACOB   AND   ESAU  25 

swear  to  keep  the  bargain,  and  then  gave  him  soup 
and  bread,  and  Esau  ate  and  drank,  and  got  up  and 
went  his  way  :  so  Esau  made  light  of  his  birthright. 

Years  afterwards  Isaac  lay  dying,  old  and  almost 
blind,  and  he  called  Esau  and  said,  "  I  am  so  old 
that  I  may  die  any  day ;  take  your  bow  and  arrows, 
and  go  out  hunting  and  get  me  game ;  and  make 
me  savoury  meat  such  as  I  love,  and  bring  it  me 
that  I  may  eat  of  it  and  bless  you  before  I  die." 

Now  Rebekah  was  listening  while  .  Isaac  talked 
to  Esau,  and  when  Esau  had  gone  out  to  shoot  the 
game,  she  said  to  Jacob,  "  I  have  just  heard  your 
father  tell  Esau  to  get  him  game  and  make  him 
savoury  meat  that  he  may  eat,  and  that  before  he 
die  he  may  bless  Esau  in  the  name  of  Jehovah. 
Now,  my  son,  you  must  do  exactly  as  I  bid  you  : 
get  me  two  goodly  kids  from  the  flock,  and  I  will 
make  them  into  savoury  meat  for  your  father,  such 
as  he  loves.  Then  you  must  take  it  to  your  father, 
that  he  may  eat  it  and  give  his  last  blessing  to  you 
instead  of  to  Esau." 

"  But,"  said  Jacob,  "  Esau  is  a  hairy  man  and  I 
am  smooth.  Perhaps  my  father  will  feel  me  and 
think  that  I  am  a  buffoon  or  playing  the  fool,  and  I 
shall  bring  on  myself  a  curse  and  not  a  blessing." 

But  Rebekah  said,  "  On  me  be  the  curse  ;  do  as 
I  tell  you,  and  get  me  the  kids." 

So  he  fetched  them,  and  his  mother  made  savoury 
meat,  such  as  his  father  loved.  Then  she  took  Esau's 
best  clothes,  which  she  was  taking  care  of  for  him, 


26  THE  PATEIARCHS 

and  put  them  on  Jacob  ;  and  she  covered  the  smooth 
skin  of  Jacob's  hands  and  neck  with  the  hairy  skin 
of  the  kids  ;  and  she  gave  him  the  savoury  meat  and 
bread,  and  he  went  to  his  father. 

And  he  said,  "  My  father." 

Isaac  answered,  "  Here  am  I ;  who  are  you,  my 
son?" 

Jacob  said  to  his  father,  "  I  am  Esau,  your  first- 
born. I  have  done  what  you  told  me  ;  rise  now,  sit 
and  eat  of  my  game,  that  you  may  bless  me." 

"How,  then,"  said  Isaac,  "have  you  found  it  so 
quickly  ?  " 

"  Because,"  said  he,  "  Jehovah  thy  God  put  it  in 
my  way." 

But  Isaac  said,  "  Come  closer,  my  son,  that  I  may 
feel  you,  and  find  out  whether  or  no  you  are  my  son 
Esau." 

So  Jacob  went  close  to  Isaac,  and  he  felt  him,  and 
did  not  recognize  him,  because  the  skins  made  his 
hands  hairy  like  Esau's  ;  and  Isaac  said,  "  The  voice 
is  the  voice  of  Jacob,  but  the  hands  are  the  hands  of 
Esau.  Are  you  really  my  son  Esau  ?  " 

Jacob  said,  "I  am." 

Then  Isaac  said,  "Put  the  savoury  meat  before 
me,  that  I  may  eat  of  my  son's  game,  and  may  bless 
you." 

Then  Jacob  put  the  meat  before  him ;  when  he 
had  eaten  it,  he  brought  his  father  wine,  and  Isaac 
drank  it,  and  said,  "  Come  close  to  me  and  kiss  me, 
my  son." 


JACOB   AND   ESAU  27 

Jacob  went  to  his  father  and  kissed  him,  and  Isaac 
smelt  the  smell  of  his  clothes  and  blessed  him,  and 
said: 

"  The  smell  of  my  son  is  as  the  smell  of  a  field 
which  Jehovah  has  blessed. 

"  God  give  thee  of  the  dew  of  heaven, 
And  of  the  fatness  of  the  earth, 
And  plenty  of  corn  and  wine. 

Let  peoples  serve  thee, 

Let  nations  bow  down  to  thee. 

Be  thou  a  lord  over  thy  brethren, 

Let  thy  mother's  sons  bow  down  to  thee ; 

Cursed  be  every  one  that  curseth  thee, 
Blessed  be  every  one  that  blesseth  thee." 

As  soon  as  Isaac  had  finished  the  blessing,  and 
Jacob  had  left  him,  Esau  came  in  from  his  hunting. 
He,  too,  made  savoury  meat,  and  brought  it  to  his 
father,  and  said  to  him,  "  Rise,  my  father,  and  eat  of 
your  son's  venison,  that  you  may  bless  me." 

"  Who  are  you?  "  said  Isaac. 

"I  am  your  son,"  said  he,  "your  first-born,  Esau." 

Then  Isaac  shook  and  trembled  in  every  limb,  and 
said,  "  Who  was  it,  then,  who  brought  me  game,  so 
that  I  ate  of  all  before  you  came,  and  blessed  him? 
Yea,  and  he  shall  be  blessed." 

At  his  father's  words  Esau  uttered  a  cry,  exceed- 
ing loud  and  bitter,  and  said,  "  Bless  me,  me  also, 
my  father." 


28  THE   PATRIARCHS 

But  Isaac  said,  "  Your  brother  has  cheated  you 
of  your  blessing." 

Esau  said,  "  Is  it  because  he  is  named  Supplanter l 
that  he  has  twice  supplanted  me?  First  he  took 
my  birthright,  and  now  he  has  taken  my  blessing. 
Have  you  not  kept  back  a  blessing  for  me  ?  " 

"  I  have  made  him  your  master,"  answered  Isaac  ; 
"  I  have  made  all  his  kinsfolk  his  slaves,  and  I  have 
given  him  the  corn  and  wine  for  his  portion.  What, 
then,  can  I  do  for  you,  my  son  ?  " 

Esau  lifted  up  his  voice  and  wept. 

Then  said  Isaac, 

"  Yea,  far  from  the  fatness  of  the  earth  be  thy  dwelling, 
And  far  from  the  dew  of  the  heavens. 
Thou  shalt  live  by  thy  sword,  and  be  thy  brother's  slave, 
But,  when  thou  strivest,  thou  shalt  break  his  yoke  from  off  thy 
neck." 

In  the  following  chapters  you  will  hear  how  Jacob 
and  Rebekah  were  punished  for  telling  and  acting 
lies  to  a  blind  old  man  on  his  death-bed,  the  husband 
ofJlebekah,  the  father  of^  Jacob. 

1  Jacob  means  Supplanter. 


CHAPTER   V 

JACOB   AND   LABAN 

ESAU  longed  to  be  revenged  on  Jacob,  and  only 
waited  till  Isaac  was  dead  and  buried.  But  Rebekah 
sent  Jacob  away  to  her  brother  Laban  at  Haran.  So 
Jacob  started  from  Beer-sheba  to  go  to  Haran,  just 
as  Eliezer  did  when  he  went  to  find  a  wife  for  Isaac. 
And  at  the  end  of  his  first  day's  journey,  he  lay 
down  to  sleep  with  a  stone  for  his  pillow.  And  he 
dreamt,  and  in  his  dream  he  saw  a  ladder  set  on  the 
earth,  with  its  top  in  the  skies,  and  the  angels  of 
God  went  up  and  down  it.  Then  Jehovah  stood 
beside  Jacob,  and  said,  "  I  am  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac, "  and  Jehovah  prom- 
ised that  Jacob's  children  should  be  a  great  and 
mighty  nation. 

When  he  awoke  he  was  afraid,  and  said,  "  Cer- 
tainly Jehovah  is  in  this  place,  and  I  knew  it  not. 
How  dreadful  is  this  place  !  This  is  none  other 
than  the  house  of  God  and  the  gate  of  heaven." 
Then  Jacob  set  up  his  stone  pillow  for  a  sacred 
pillar,  and  poured  oil  on  the  top  of  it  as  an  offer- 
ing to  Jehovah.  And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow,  saying, 
"  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me  on  my 
journey,  and  give  me  bread  to  eat  and  clothes  to 

29 


30  THE  PATRIARCHS 

wear,  and  bring  me  safely  home  again,  then  this 
pillar  shall  be  a  temple  of  God,  and  I  will  give 
Thee  a  tenth  of  all  that  Thou  givest  me." 

And  he  called  the  place  Bethel,  which  means  House 
of  Crod  or  Temple  ;  and  after  the  Israelites  conquered 
Canaan  they  worshipped  God  at  the  temple  at  Bethel, 
and  paid  tithes  to  the  priests  there. 

And  Jacob  went  on  his  journey,  and  after  many 
days  he  came  to  a  well,  with  three  flocks  of  sheep 
lying  by  it ;  and  the  shepherds  told  him  they  be- 
longed to  Haran.  Then  Jacob  knew  that  he  had 
reached  the  end  of  his  journey,  and  he  said  to 'them, 
"  Do  you  know  Laban  the  son  of  Nahor  ?  " 

They  said,  "We  do." 

"  Is  he  well  ?  "  said  Jacob. 

They  said,  "Yes,  and  here  comes  his  daughter 
Rachel  with  the  sheep." 

When  Jacob  saw  his  cousin  Rachel  with  her  sheep, 
he  went  to  the  well  and  rolled  back  the  great  stone 
that  covered  it,  and  drew  water  for  the  sheep.  Then 
he  kissed  Rachel,  and  wept  aloud  for  joy  that  he  had 
come  safely  to  his  kinsfolk ;  and  he  told  Rachel  that 
he  was  her  cousin,  and  she  ran  and  told  her  father 
Laban.  When  Laban  heard  that  his  sister  Rebekah's 
son  had  come,  he  ran  to  meet  him,  and  embraced  him 
and  kissed  him,  and  took  him  to  his  house ;  and 
Jacob  told  him  all  that  had  happened.  So  Jacob 
lived  with  Laban,  and  helped  him  with  his  flocks 
and  herds.  Laban  offered  to  pay  him  wages,  but 
Jacob  had  fallen  in  love  with  Rachel,  who  was  very 


I  I    ill!     ill 


31 


JACOB   AND   LABAN  33 

beautiful ;  and  he  said  to  Laban,  "  I  will  be  your 
servant  for  seven  years,  if  you  will  let  me  marry 
your  younger  daughter  Rachel." 

Laban  agreed,  and  Jacob  worked  seven  years  to 
get  Rachel,  and  they  seemed  to  him  only  a  few  days 
because  of  his  great  love  to  her.  At  the  end  of  the 
seven  years,  Laban  pretended  that  he  was  going  to 
give  Rachel  to  Jacob.  He  invited  all  the  neigh- 
bours to  the  wedding,  and  made  a  great  feast  for 
them.  The  bride  was  brought  in  veiled,  and  Jacob 
supposed  it  was  Rachel ;  but  when  the  wedding  was 
over,  he  found  out  that  he  had  married  her  elder 
sister  Leah,  and  he  was  very  angry.  ,But  Laban 
explained  that  in  Haran  the  elder  sister  was  always 
married  first,  and  he  offered  to  let  Jacob  marry 
Rachel  too  next  week,  if  he  would  work  for  him 
another  seven  years ;  and  Jacob  consented,  and 
married  Rachel  as  well  as  Leah.  And  Rachel  and 
Leah  were  jealous  of  each  other,  and  made  Jacob's 
life  a  burden  to  him  by  their  quarrelling.  Later 
on,  he  married  also  two  slave-girls,  Bilhah,  Rachel's 
maid,  and  Zilpah,  Leah's  maid;  and  he  had  twelve 
sons  and  a  daughter.  When  the  second  seven  years 
were  ended,  he  agreed  to  work  for  Laban  for  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  the  lambs  of  his  flocks  ;  and  Laban 
and,  Jacob  were  always  trying  to  get  the  better  of 
each  other  in  the  matter  of  wages,  but  Jacob  was 
cleverer  than  Laban,  and  Jacob  got  rich  and  Laban 
got  poor.  Then  Laban  and  his  sons  hated  Jacob, 
and  Jacob  was  afraid  they  would  rob  him,  or  per- 


34  THE   PATRIARCHS 

haps  even  kill  him ;  so  he  fled  away  by  night  with 
his  flocks  and  herds  and  slaves,  and  his  wives  and 
children,  to  go  back  to  Canaan.  When  Laban  heard 
that  they  had  gone,  he  gathered  his  kinsfolk  to- 
gether and  pursued  them,  and  in  three  days  he 
overtook  them.  But  God  would  not  let  Laban  harm 
Jacob.  So  when  Jacob  had  promised  that  he  would 
be  kind  to  Laban's  daughters,  Laban  left  him  and 
went  home  again. 

And  now  Jacob  bethought  him  of  Esau,  and  he 
sent  to  tell  Esau  that  he  was  on  his  way  home  ;  and 
the  messengers  returned  to  Jacob  and  said,  "We 
found  your  brother  Esau,  and  he  is  coming  to  meet 
you  with  four  hundred  men." 

Then  Jacob  was  terribly  frightened.  He  got 
ready  a  present  for  Esau  —  two  hundred  and  twenty 
goats,  two  hundred  and  twenty  sheep,  thirty  camels, 
fifty  oxen,  and  thirty  asses.  He  arranged  them  in 
separate  droves,  each  with  a  slave  to  drive  it ;  and 
Jacob  said  to  each  of  the  slaves,  "  When  my  brother 
Esau  meets  you,  and  asks  who  you  are  and  to  whom 
the  cattle  belong,  you  must  say,  i  They  belong  to 
your  slave  Jacob  ;  it  is  a  present  sent  to  my  lord 
Esau.'" 

So  the  present  for  Esau  was  sent  on  in  front,  one 
drove  after  the  other,  and  behind  came  the  other 
slaves  and  flocks  and  herds,  and  then  the  wives  and 
children.  Jacob  put  Bilhah  and  Zilpah  and  their 
children  first,  Leah  and  her  children  next,  and  last 
of  all  his  beloved  Rachel  and  his  darling  Joseph,  her 


35 


JACOB   AND   LABAN  37 

son,  that  they  might  have  the  best  chance  of  escap- 
ing if  Esau  was  still  vindictive.  When  Jacob  saw 
Esau  and  the  four  hundred  men  coming,  he  went  on 
in  front  to  meet  them,  and  prostrated  himself  on  the 
ground  seven  times  before  Esau.  But  Esau  ran  to 
meet  him,  and  embraced  him,  and  fell  on  his  neck 
and  kissed  him,  and  they  both  wept.  And  Esau 
proposed  that  he  and  Jacob  should  live  together,  but 
Jacob  made  excuses,  and  they  separated. 


CHAPTER   VI 

JOSEPH   THE   SPOILT   DARLING 

AFTER  Jacob  left  Esau,  Rachel  had  a  son  Benja- 
min, and  died  when  he  was  born  ;  but  for  a  long 
time  before,  she  had  only  one  son,  Joseph,  and  he 
was  Jacob's  youngest  child ;  and  Rachel  was  his 
favourite  wife.  Jacob  loved  Joseph  more  than  all 
his  other  sons,  because  he  was  the  son  of  his  old 
age ;  and  he  made  him  a  long  robe  with  sleeves, 
such  as  princes  wore.  So  his  brothers  hated  him, 
and  could  scarcely  bring  themselves  to  speak  a  civil 
word  to  him. 

Once  Joseph  had  a  dream,  and  told  it  to  his  broth- 
ers. "  I  dreamed,"  said  he,  "  that  we  were  binding 
sheaves  in  the  harvest  field,  and  my  sheaf  arose  and 
stood  upright ;  and  your  sheaves  came  round  about 
and  bowed  to  my  sheaf." 

His  brothers  answered,  "  Do  you  really  think  you 
are  going  to  be  king  over  us  ?  "  and  they  hated  him 
more  than  ever. 

Soon  after  he  had  another  dream,  and  told  it  to 
his  brothers.  "  I  dreamed,"  said  he,  "  that  the  sun 
and  moon  and  eleven  stars  bowed  down  to  me." 

Then  his  father  rebuked  him,  and  said,  "  What 
an  absurd  dream  !  Am  I,  and  your  brothers,  and 
your  mother  to  bow  down  before  you  ?  " 

38 


JOSEPH   THE   SPOILT   DARLING  39 

And  his  brothers  were  jealous  of  him,  but  his 
jfa/bher  kept  the  dreams  in  mind. 

Now,  sometimes  Joseph  went  with  his  brothers  to 
help  them  keep  the  sheep,  and  he  used  to  come  home 
to  his  father  and  tell  tales  about  his  brothers.  Once 
they  went  to  feed  their  father's  flock  in  Shechem. 
Afterwards  Jacob  sent  Joseph  to  go  and  see  his 
brothers,  and  bring  back  word  about  them.  But 
when  Joseph  got  to  Shechem,  his  brothers  were 
gone,  and  as  he  was  wandering  about  looking  for 
them,  he  met  a  man  who  told  him  that  they  had 
gone  to  Dothan  ;  and  he  went  after  his  brethren,  and 
found  them  in  Dothan.  And  they  saw  him  coming, 
and  said  to  each  other,  "  Here  is  this  dreamer.  Let 
us  kill  him,  and  throw  his  body  into  one  of  the  cis- 
terns,1 and  say  that  a  wild  beast  has  devoured  him ; 
and  we  will  see  what  will  come  of  his  dreams." 

But  the  eldest  brother  Reuben  said,  "  Do  not  shed 
blood,  throw  him  into  this  cistern,  do  not  hurt  him." 
Now  Reuben  intended,  some  time  when  the  rest  were 
not  there,  to  take  Joseph  out  of  the  cistern,  and 
send  him  safely  home  to  his  father. 

So  when  Joseph  came  to  them,  they  stripped  off 
his  princely  robe,  and  threw  him  into  a  cistern  with- 
,out  any  water  in  it,  and  went  away  and  left  him 
there. 

And  when  they  were  gone,  there  passed  by  some 
Midianite  merchants,  and  they  drew  Joseph  out  of 

1  Pits  for  holding  water,  often  empty. 


40  THE   PATRIARCHS 

the  cistern,  and  took  him  away  to  sell  him  for  a 
slave. 

Later  on,  Reuben  came  back  to  the  cistern  to  take 
Joseph  cut  and  send  him  home,  but  he  was  nowhere 
to  be  found.  Reuben  tore  his  clothes  in  his  grief, 
and  went  back  to  his  brothers,  and  said,  "  The  boy 
is  gone ;  and  I,  whither  shall  I  go  ?  " 

Then  they  took  the  robe,  and  killed  a  goat,  and 
dipped  the  robe  in  its  blood,  and  brought  it  to 
Jacob,  and  said,  "  We  have  found  this ;  is  it 
Joseph's  robe  ?  " 

And  Jacob  recognized  it,  and  said,  "  It  is  my 
son's  robe  ;  a  wild  beast  has  devoured  him :  Joseph 
is  without  doubt  torn  in  pieces." 

And  he  tore  his  clothes,  and  put  on  sackcloth, 
and  mourned  for  his  son  many  days.  And  all  his 
sons  and  daughters  rose  up  to  comfort  him,  but  he 
refused  to  be  comforted,  and  said,  "  Mourning  will 
I  go  down  to  my  son  in  the  land  of  the  spirits  of  the 
dead." 

Meanwhile  the  Midianites  took  Joseph  down  into 
Egypt,  and  sold  him  to  Potiphar,  the  captain  of 
Pharaoh's  bodyguard. 


CHAPTER  VII 

JOSEPH  IN  PRISON 

GOD  helped  Joseph  when  he  was  a  slave  in  Egypt, 
so  that  he  was  able  to  do  his  work  well.  His  master 
saw  that  he  was  clever,  and  industrious,  and  faith-, 
ful;  and  set  him  over  all  his  fellow-servants,  and 
over  his  house  and  fields  and  cattle,  and  all  that 
he  had.  Then  God  blessed  Potiphar's  house  for 
Joseph's  sake,  and  the  blessing  of  Jehovah,  the  God 
of  Israel,  was  upon  all  that  he  had  in  the  house  and 
in  the  field.  Potiphar  trusted  everything  to  Joseph, 
and  asked  for  no  account  of  anything,  so  that  he 
knew  nothing  about  his  house  and  his  estate,  except 
that  he  had  a  good  dinner  every  day. 

But  Potiphar's  wife  was  a  wicked  woman,  and 
brought  false  charges  against  Joseph,  so  that  Poti- 
phar was  angry,  and  had  him  put  in  prison.  And 
still  Jehovah  was  with  Joseph,  and  showed  him  kind- 
ness, so  that  the  governor  of  the  prison  was  pleased 
with  him,  and  trusted  him  just  as  Potiphar  had  done. 
The  governor  put  Joseph  in  authority  over  all  his 
fellow-prisoners,  and  did  not  ask  for  any  account  of 
what  he  did,  and  Joseph  managed  everything  well, 
because  Jehovah  was  with  him. 

When  Joseph  had  been  in  prison  a  long  time, 
there  were  brought  in  two  new  prisoners,  two  great 

41 


42  THE   PATRIARCHS 

nobles  from  the  court  of  Pharaoh,  King  of  Egypt, 
the  Chief  Baker  and  the  Chief  Cupbearer.  They 
had  offended  the  King,  and  he  had  sent  them  to 
prison ;  and  the  governor  put  Joseph  in  charge  of 
them.  One  morning  he  found  them  looking  very 
sad,  and  asked  them  why  they  were  so  downcast, 
and  in  such  low  spirits ;  and  they  said,  "  We  have 
each  of  us  dreamed  a  dream,  and  there  is  no  one  to 
interpret." 

And  Joseph  said,  "Do  not  interpretations  belong 
to  God?  Tell  me  the  dreams." 

Then  the  Chief  Cupbearer  said,  "  In  my  dream  I 
saw  a  vine  with  three  branches ;  and  while  I  looked 
at  it,  it  seemed  to  bud,  and  the  buds  grew  into 
blossoms,  and  there  grew  clusters  of  ripe  grapes. 
And  I  had  Pharaoh's  cup  in  my  hand,  and  I  took 
the  grapes  and  pressed  them  into  Pharaoh's  cup, 
and  gave  it  into  Pharaoh's  hand." 

Joseph  said,  "  This  is  the  interpretation :  the 
three  branches  are  three  days ;  in  three  days  Pha- 
raoh will  take  you  out  of  prison,  and  make  you 
Chief  Cupbearer  again.  Then,  I  pray  you,  remem- 
ber me,  and  tell  Pharaoh  about  me,  that  I,  too,  may 
be  taken  out  of  prison  ;  for  I  was  stolen  away  from 
my  own  country,  and  I  have  been  put  into  prison 
on  a  false  charge." 

When  the  Chief  Baker  saw  that  the  interpretation 
was  good,  he  said,  "  In  my  dream  I  had  three  bas- 
kets of  white  bread  on  my  head,  and  in  the  top 
basket  there  were  all  manner  of  dainties  for  Pharaoh, 


JOSEPH  IN   PBISON  43 

and  the  birds  ate  them  out  of  the  basket  on  my 
head:" 

Joseph  said,  "This  is  the  interpretation  :  the  three 
baskets  are  three  days ;  in  three  days  Pharaoh  will 
cut  your  head  off,  and  hang  you  on  a  tree ;  and  the 
birds  shall  eat  your  flesh  off  your  bones." 

And  the  third  day  was  Pharaoh's  birthday,  and 
he  made  a  feast  for  all  his  courtiers,  and  he  had 
the  Chief  Baker  and  Chief  Cupbearer  brought  be- 
fore him,  and  restored  the  Chief  Cupbearer  to  his 
office,  and  hanged  the  Chief  Baker,  just  as  Joseph 
had  said.  Yet  the  Chief  Cupbearer  forgot  all  about 
Joseph. 

But,  two  years  after,  Pharaoh  had  a  bad  dream 
one  night ;  and  he  awoke  in  the  morning  anxious 
and  frightened,  and  sent  for  all  his  magicians  and 
wise  men,  and  asked  them  to  interpret  his  dream  ; 
but  none  of  them  could  tell  him  what  it  meant. 
Then  said  the  Chief  Cupbearer,  "  One  night,  when 
the  Chief  Baker  and  I  were  in  prison,  we  each  of  us 
had  a  dream.  And  we  told  our  dreams  to  a  young 
Hebrew,1  and  he  interpreted  them  ;  and  the  inter- 
pretation came  true — the  Chief  Baker  was  hanged, 
and  I  was  restored  to  my  office." 

Then  Pharaoh  sent  to  the  prison  to  fetch  Joseph. 

1  People  of  other  nations  called  the  Israelites  u  Hebrews." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

JOSEPH   THE   RULER   OF   EGYPT 

So  the  messengers  came  to  fetch  Joseph  to  the 
court.  They  hurried  him  out  of  the  prison,  and  he 
changed  his  prison  clothes  for  others,  and  shaved 
himself,  and  went  with  them  to  Pharaoh. 

And  Pharaoh  said,  "  I  have  dreamed  a  dream,  and 
there  is  no  one  that  can  interpret  it ;  and  I  have  been 
told  that,  if  you  hear  a  dream,  you  can  interpret  it." 

Joseph  answered,  "  It  is  not  in  me  :  God  shall  give 
Pharaoh  an  answer  of  peace." 

Then  Pharaoh  said, "  In  my  dream  I  stood  upon 
the  brink  of  the  Nile,  and  seven  fat,  sleek  cows  came 
up  out  of  the  Nile  and  fed  amongst  the  reeds ;  and 
there  came  up  after  them  seven  poor,  lean,  ugly 
cows,  the  worst  I  ever  saw  in  all  Egypt ;  and  the 
lean,  ugly  cows  ate  up  the  seven  fat  cows  ;  and  when 
they  had  eaten  them  up,  no  one  could  have  known 
that  they  had  had  anything  to  eat,  they  were  as  ugly 
as  they  were  before. 

"Afterwards  I  dreamed  another  dream.  There 
came  up  on  one  stalk  seven  full  and  good  ears, 
and  there  sprung  up  after  them  seven  other  ears, 
withered,  thin,  and  blasted  with  the  east  wind ;  and 
the  thin  ears  swallowed  up  the  good  ears." 

44 


JOSEPH   THE   RULER   OF  EGYPT  45 

Joseph  said,  "The  two  dreams  are  one.  The 
seven  good  cows  and  the  seven  good  ears  both  mean 
the  same  seven  years  of  plenty ;  and  the  seven  lean 
cows  and  the  seven  blasted  ears  both  mean  the  same 
seven  years  of  famine.  God  sent  this  dream  to  tell 
Pharaoh  that  there  shall  be  seven  good  harvests  in 
Egypt,  and  then  seven  bad  harvests,  and  the  famine 
shall  consume  the  land  so  that  the  good  harvests 
shall  be  forgotten  ;  and  the  dream  was  doubled 
because  God's  purpose  is  fixed,  and  shall  soon  be 
accomplished.  Now,  therefore,  let  Pharaoh  find  a 
sensible,  capable  man,  and  let  him  store  up  corn  in 
the  good  years  against  the  years  of  famine." 

And  Joseph's  advice  pleased  Pharaoh  and  all  his 
court,  and  the  king  said,  "  Since  God  has  showed 
you  all  this,  there  is  no  one  as  sensible  and  capable 
as  you  are.  You  shall  be  over  my  house  and  rule 
my  people ;  without  you  no  one  shall  stir  hand  or 
foot  in  all  Egypt.  Only  I  myself,  the  king,  will  be 
greater  than  you." 

Then  Pharaoh  took  off  his  signet-ring  and  put 
it  on  Joseph's  finger,  and  arrayed  him  in  princely 
robes,  and  made  him  ride  in  the  second-best  royal 
chariot.  So  Joseph  rode  in  state  through  the  city, 
and  heralds  went  before  him  and  cried  out,  "  Bow 
the  knee." 

And  Pharaoh  gave  Joseph  a  wife  —  Asenath,  the 
daughter  of  an  Egyptian  priest.  Now,  in  Egypt, 
the  priests  were  great  nobles  and  very  rich. 

So  Joseph  was  Pharaoh's  Grand  Vizier  or  prime 


46  THE   PATRIARCHS 

minister,  and  ruled  all  Egypt.  When  the  seven 
good  harvests  came,  he  stored  up  thousands  and 
thousands  of  sacks  of  corn,  and  at  last  he  had  more 
sacks  than  he  could  count,  and  the  corn  in  the  gran- 
aries was  like  the  sand  on  the  seashore.  Then  came 
the  years  of  famine,  and  Joseph  sold  corn  out  of 
his  granaries  to  all  the  Egyptians. 

And  the  famine  was  in  the  countries  round  about, 
so  that  many  foreigners  came  into  Egypt  to  buy 
corn,  and  Joseph  sat  in  state  and  received  them, 
and  gave  them  permission  to  buy.  One  day  there 
came  amongst  the  other  foreigners  Joseph's  ten 
brethren  —  all  except  Benjamin.  And  they  bowed 
humbly  to  the  great  Egyptian  prince,  and  did  not 
know  that  it  was  Joseph,  the  lad  whom  they  threw 
into  the  cistern.  Joseph  knew  them,  and  remem- 
bered how  he  had  dreamed  that  they  should  bow 
down  before  him.  But  he  behaved  as  if  he  were 
a  stranger  to  them,  and  accused  them  of  being  spies 
from  some  enemies'  country. 

And  they  said,  "We  are  no  spies,  we  are  true 
men.  Thy  servants  are  twelve  brothers  from 
Canaan,  but  one  of  our  brothers  is  dead,  tind  our 
youngest  brother  is  at  home  with  his  father." 

But  Joseph  put  them  in  prison  for  three  days, 
and  then  he  said  to  them,  "  I  will  give  you  a  chance 
of  proving  that  you  are  honest  men:  one  of  you 
must  stay  here  in  prison,  but  the  rest  may  go 
home,  and  take  food  to  feed  your  families.  But 
you  must  come  back  again,  and  bring  me  your 


JOSEPH  THE  RULER  OF  EGYPT        47 

youngest  brother,  that  I  may  know  that  you  told 
me  the  truth  when  you  said  you  had  another 
brother." 

And  they  said  to  one  another  in  Joseph's  pres- 
ence, "  We  are  being  punished  for  our  cruelty  to 
Joseph,  because  we  would  not  listen  to  his  entreaties   /\ 
when  he  was  in  trouble." 

They  thought  that  this  Egyptian  prince  could 
not  understand  their  Canaanite  language,  because 
Joseph  had  talked  with  them  by  means  of  an  in- 
terpreter. But  Joseph  understood  it  all,  and  he 
turned  from  them  and  wept. 

Then  Simeon  —  one  of  the  brothers  —  was  left 
behind  in  prison,  and  the  rest  started  for  Canaan 
with  their  sacks  full  of  corn ;  and  when  they  halted 
on  the  first  night,  one  of  them  opened  his  sack  to 
get  some  corn  to  give  to  his  ass,  and  he  found 
the  money  he  had  paid  for  his  corn  put  back  at 
the  top  of  his  sack ;  and  so  it  was  in  all  the  other 
sacks.  And  they  were  puzzled  and  frightened,  but 
Joseph  had  had  it  put  there,  because  he  would  not 
take  money  from  his  brothers  for  the  food  he  gave 
them. 

And  the  brothers  came  home  to  Jacob  and  Ben- 
jamin, and  told  the  whole  story ;  and,  when  the 
corn  was  finished,  they  wished  to  take  Benjamin 
and  go  to  Egypt  to  buy  more  corn,  and  bring 
Simeon  home.  But  at  first  Jacob  would  not  let 
Benjamin  go.  He  said,  "  Me  have  you  bereaved 
of  my  children ;  Joseph  is  not,  and  Simeon  is  not, 


48  THE   PATRIARCHS 

and  you  will  take  Benjamin  away ;  all  these  things 
are  against  me." 

But,  at  last,  when  they  seemed  likely  to  starve  for 
want  of  corn,  they  persuaded  Jacob  to  let  Benjamin 
go  with  them.  So  the  eleven  brothers  went  down 
to  Egypt,  and  stood  before  Joseph  as  he  sat  in  state 
to  sell  corn  to  the  foreigners.  And  when  Joseph 
saw  that  Benjamin  was  with  them,  he  said  to  the 
steward  of  his  house,  "  Take  the  men  into  my  house, 
and  prepare  a  feast,  for  they  must  dine  with  me  at 
noon."  And  the  steward  did  as  Joseph  said;  and, 
when  Joseph  came  home  to  dinner,  his  brothers  were 
there  to  meet  him,  and  still  they  did  not  know  him. 

And  he  said  to  them,  "  Is  your  father  well,  the 
old  man  of  whom  you  spoke  ?  " 

And  they  said,  "  Thy  servant  our  father  is  well ; 
he  is  still  alive." 

And  he  looked  and  saw  his  brother  Benjamin, 
mother's  son,  and  said,  "  God  be  gracious  unto 
thee,  my  son." 

Then  he  altogether  broke  down.  He  was  greatly 
moved  at  the  sight  of  Benjamin,  and  he  hurried  out 
and  went  to  his  own  room  to  weep  alone.  And 
when  he  was  himself  again,  he  washed  his  face,  and 
came  T3ack  to  the  banquet-hall,  and  bade  them  serve 
the  dinner.  And  they  laid  three  tables,  one  for 
Joseph,  one  for  the  Egyptians,  and  one  for  the 
Hebrew  strangers,  for  the  Egyptians  thought  it 
wicked  to  eat  with  foreigners.  Joseph  placed  his 
brothers  according  to  their  age,  the  oldest  first,  and 


JOSEPH  THE   KULER   OF   EGYPT  49 

the  youngest  last,  and  they  wondered  how  he  knew 
their  ages.  And  he  sent  portions  to  them  from  his 
own  table,  but  Benjamin's  portion  was  five  times  as 
much  as  any  one  else's. 

Next  day  the  eleven  brothers  started  home  again, 
with  their  sacks  filled  with  corn.  But  Joseph  had 
had  a  silver  cup  hidden  in  Benjamin's  sack,  and  sent 
his  steward  after  them.  The  steward  caught  them 
up,  and  accused  them  of  stealing  the  cup ;  and, 
when  he  had  searched  in  all  the  sacks,  he  found  the 
cup  in  Benjamin's.  Then  he  took  them  all  back  to 
Joseph's  house  ;  and  Joseph  said  that  Benjamin  must  V 
be  a  slave,  but  the  rest  might  go  home. 

Then  Judah  reminded  Joseph  that  Benjamin  had 
only  come  to  Egypt  because  Joseph  asked  for  him. 
"Now,  therefore,"  said  he,  "when  I  come  to  thy 
servant  my  father,  and  the  lad  is  not  with  us ;  since 
his  life  is  bound  up  in  the  lad's  life,  when  he  sees 
that  the  lad  is  not  with  us,  he  will  die,  and  thy 
servants  shall  bring  down  the  grey  hairs  of  thy 
servant  our  father  with  sorrow  to  the  grave.  I 
pray  thee,  let  me  stay  to  be  thy  slave  instead  of 
the  lad,  and  let  him  go  with  his  brothers.  How  can 
I  go  home  without  him,  and  see  my  father's  grief  ?  " 

Then  Joseph  could  not  contain  himself  any  longer, 
and  he  made  all  the  Egyptians  go  out,  so  that  he 
was  left  alone  with  his  brothers.  And  he  wept 
aloud,  so  that  the  Egyptians  heard  him  outside. 
And  he  said  to  his  brothers,  "  I  am  Joseph.  Is  my 
father  still  alive  ?  " 


50  THE  PATRIARCHS 

And  his  brothers  were  troubled,  and  could  not 
answer  him  ;  but  he  bade  them  not  be  grieved  or 
angry  with  themselves  because  they  had  wronged 
him,  for  God  had  brought  good  out  of  their  evil, 
and  made  him  a  saviour  of  Egypt  and  of  his  own 
people  from  the  famine.  And  he  fell  upon  his 
brother  Benjamin's  neck  and  wept,  and  Benjamin 
wept  upon  his  neck.  And  he  kissed  all  his  brothers, 
and  they  all  talked  together. 

And  they  heard  about  it  in  Pharaoh's  court.  They 
said,  "Joseph's  brothers  are  come,"  and  Pharaoh 
and  his  courtiers  were  glad.  Pharaoh  bade  Joseph 
send  wagons  to  fetch  his  father  and  his  brothers' 
wives  and  children  down  into  Egypt.  And  Joseph 
sent  the  wagons  with  his  brothers,  and  sent  presents 
for  his  father,  and  food  for  the  journey. 

They  came  to  Jacob  and  said,  "Joseph  is  still 
alive,  and  he  is  ruler  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt." 

His  heart  fainted,  because  he  could  not  believe 
them.  But  when  they  told  him  the  whole  story, 
and  showed  him  the  wagons,  his  spirit  revived,  and 
he  said,  "  It  is  enough ;  Joseph  my  son  is  still 
alive;  I  will  go  and  see  him  before  I  die." 

So  they  all  journeyed  to  Egypt ;  and  Joseph  came 
in  his  chariot  to  meet  Jacob,  and  fell  on  his  neck 
and  wept  a  good  while.  And  Joseph  brought  Jacob 
into  the  presence  of  King  Pharaoh,  and  Pharaoh 
asked  Jacob  how  old  he  was. 

Jacob  said,  "  I  am  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  old. 
Few  and  evil  have  been  the  years  of  my  life  ;  they 


JOSEPH   THE   RULER   OF   EGYPT  51 

have  not  been  so  many  as  the  years  of  my  fathers  in 
the  days  of  their  sojournings." 

Then  Jacob  blessed  Pharaoh,  and  went  out  from 
his  presence.  And  Pharaoh  gave  the  Israelites 
(that  is,  Jacob  and  his  sons  and  their  tribe,  for 
Jacob  was  also  called  Israel)  the  land  of  Goshen 
for  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  they  dwelt  there. 


II 

MOSES  AND  JOSHUA 

CHAPTER   I 
THE  SON  OF  PHARAOH'S  DAUGHTER 

WHEN  the  Israelites  came  to  Egypt,  they  lived 
very  much  as  they  did  before.  Their  wealth  was 
still  their  flocks  and  herds ;  they  lived  in  tents,  and 
roamed  about  from  one  ^pasture  to  another.  Only 
they  did  not  wander  through  many  different  lands, 
but  kept  in  Goshen,  on  the  borders  of  Egypt.  The 
years  went  on ;  first  Jacob  died,  and  then  Joseph ; 
and  the  king  who  had  made  Joseph  his  prime 
minister  died.  After  a  while  there  was  a  king  of 
Egypt  who  forgot  how  Joseph  had  saved  the  coun- 
try in  the  time  of  the  famine  ;  but  he  saw  that 
the  Israelites  were  growing  into  a  great  people. 
And  he  said  to  his  captains  and  chief  men,  "  These 
Israelites  are  too  many  and  too  mighty  for  us  ;  and 
perhaps,  when  we  are  at  war,  they  will  join  our 
enemies  and  fight  against  us." 

So,  to  break  the  spirit  of  the  Israelites,  the 
Egyptians  took  them  from  their  flocks  and  herds, 

62 


THE  SON  OF  PHARAOH'S  DAUGHTER    53 

and  made  them  work  hard  in  the  broiling  sun  to, 

build  great  cities.  They  had  poor  food  and  little 
of  it,  and  were  often  cruelly  beaten.  Their  lives 
were  made  bitter  with  hard  work.  But  the  worse 
they  were  treated  the  more  they  multiplied  and 
increased  in  number,  and  the  more  frightened  the 
Egyptians  became. 

Then  the  king  of  Egypt  tried  another  way  of 
preventing  the  Israelites  from  getting  too  numerous. 
He  ordered  that  every  baby  boy  should  be  thrown 
into  the  Nile  as  soon  as  it  was  born.  Now,  after 
the  king  had  issued  this  order,  two  Israelites,  Am- 
ram  and  his  wife  Jochebed,  had  a  little  baby  boy  ; 
and  his  mother  thought  him  the  most  beautiful  baby 
that  ever  was,  and  she  hid  him  away  to  prevent  his 
being  thrown  into  the  Nile.  She  kept  him  hidden 
for  three  months,  till  he  got  so  big  and  noisy  that 
she  was  sure  the  Egyptians  would  hear  him.  Then 
she  took  an  "  ark,"  or  basket  of  bulrushes,  and 
daubed  it  with  mud  and  pitch  so  that  it  would  float 
like  a  little  ship.  She  put  the  boy  in  it,  and  laid 
it  in  the  reeds  by  the  river's  bank.  When  it  was 
left  there,  his  sister  stood  some  way  off  to  see  what 
would  become  of  him.  And  Pharaoh's  daughter 
came  down  to  bathe  in  the  river,  and  walked  along 
the  bank  with  her  maids,  or  ladies-in-waiting,  and 
she  saw  the  "ark"  amongst  the  reeds,  and  sent 
her  maid  to  fetch  it.  When  she  opened  it,  she  saw 
the  child ;  and,  sure  enough,  he  was  crying.  Then 
she  felt  very  sorry  for  him,  because  she  saw  he  was 


54  MOSES   AND   JOSHUA 

one  of  the  Israelite  babies  whom  her  father  had 
ordered  to  be  drowned.  When  the  boy's  sister  saw 
the  princess  open  the  ark,  she  came  to  see  what 
would  be  done  with  the  baby ;  and  she  saw  that  the 
princess  would  like  to  keep  him  and  take  care  of 
him.  So  she  said,  "  Shall  I  find  a  Hebrew  woman 
to  nurse  the  child  for  you?" 

And  the  princess  said  "  Yes." 

So  his  sister  went  and  fetched  his  mother,  and  she 
had  her  son  home  again  safely,  and  took  care  of  him 
and  enjoyed  him  in  peace  and  comfort,  without  hav- 
ing to  hide  him  away  ;  and  she  was  paid  for  nursing 
her  own  baby,  because  he  was  the  adopted  son  of  the 
princess.  But  when  he  grew  to  be  a  big  boy,  she 
had  to  take  him  to  Pharaoh's  daughter,  and  he  w^as 
treated  as  if  he  were  her  son,  and  she  called  his  name 
Moses. 


. 

-- 


55 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   REPROACH   OF   CHRIST 

WHILE  the  other  Israelites  were  being  illtreated 
and  overworked,  Moses  grew  up  in  a  palace,  and 
lived  like  a  prince.  But  somehow  he  came  to  know 
that  these  wretched  and  despised  people  were  his 
kinsfolk  and  fellow-countrymen ;  and  one  day  he 
went  out  to  see  them  at  their  hard  work,  and  he  saw 
one  of  them  being  beaten  by  an  Egyptian.  And  he 
looked  this  way  and  that,  and  there  was  no  one  else 
to  be  seen;  and  then  he  struck  the  Egyptian  and 
killed  him,  and  hid  his  body  in  the  sand. 

The  next  day  he  went  out  again,  and  saw  one  of 
his  own  people  beating  another  Israelite.  And  he 
said,  "  Why  do  you  beat  him  ?  " 

But  the  man  answered,  "  Who  made  you  a  prince 
and  a  judge  over  us?  Do  you  mean  to  kill  me  as 
you  did  the  Egyptian?" 

Then  Moses  knew  that  some  one  had  seen  him  kill 
the  Egyptian ;  and  soon  Pharaoh  heard  of  it,  and 
tried  to  kill  Moses.  But  Moses  ran  away  and  es- 
caped, and  after  a  time  he  came  to  a  well  in  the  land 
of  Midiari,  and  sat  down  there.  And  the  seven 
daughters  of  Reuel  or  Jethro,  the  priest  of  Midian, 
came  to  the  well,  and  drew  water  into  the  drinking 

57 


58  MOSES   AND   JOSHUA 

troughs  for  their  father's  flock.  But  the  shepherds 
came  and  wanted  to  drive  them  away.  Then  Moses 
stood  up  and  helped  them,  and  watered  their  sheep. 
And  when  they  came  back  to  their  father,  he  said, 
"How  is  it  that  you  have  come  back  so  soon  to- 
day?" 

They  said,  "  An  Egyptian  helped  us  against  the 
shepherds,  and  gave  water  to  our  sheep." 

Jethro  said,  "  Where  is  he  ?  Why  did  you  not 
bring  him  with  you  ?  " 

So  they  went  and  fetched  Moses,  and  in  the  end 
he  agreed  to  stay  with  Jethro,  and  keep  his  sheep. 
Afterwards  he  married  Zipporah,  one  of  the  seven 
daughters.  And  so  instead  of  being  a  prince  in 
Egypt,  he  was  a  shepherd  in  Midian,  in  exile  from 
his  countrymen  and  all  his  old  friends. 

The  New  Testament  tells  us  that  Moses  bore  "the 
reproach  of  Christ,"  which  teaches  us  that  those  who 
make  sacrifices  for  their  country  and  their  kinsfolk 
are  serving  and  pleasing  Christ,  even  when,  like 
Moses,  they  have  never  heard  of  Him. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   BURNING  BUSH 

WHILE  Moses  was  keeping  sheep  in  Midian,  he 
was  called  by  God  in  a  vision  to  be  the  deliverer 
of  Israel.  The  Angel  of  Jehovah  appeared  to  him. 
He  saw  what  seemed  like  flames  of  fire  in  a  bush, 
but  the  bush  was  not  burnt  up  by  the  fire. 

And  Moses  said,  "  I  will  turn  aside  now,  and  see 
this  great  sight,  why  the  bush  is  not  burnt." 

Then  God  called  to  him,  "  Moses  !     Moses  ! " 

He  said,  "Here  am  I." 

God  said,  "  Do  not  come  near ;  take  off  your 
shoes,  for  you  are  standing  on  holy  ground." 

For  in  the  East,  when  men  went  into  a  temple, 
they  took  off  their  shoes  as  we  take  off  our  hats ; 
and  the  place  where  God  appeared  by  His  angel 
was  holy,  as  if  it  had  been  a  temple. 

God  said,  "  I  am  the  God  of  thy  fathers,  the  God 
of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac  and  the  God  of 
Jacob." 

Then  Moses  hid  his  face,  because  he  was  afraid  to 
look  at  God. 

And  God  said,  "  I  have  seen  how  my  people  suffer 
in  Egypt,  and  how  the  Egyptians  illtreat  them;  and 
I  have  heard  their  prayers,  and  have  come  to  deliver 
them,  and  to  take  them  to  Canaan,  a  land  flowing 

69 


60  MOSES    AND   JOSHUA 

with  milk  and  honey.  Come  now,  therefore,  and  I 
will  send  you  to  Pharaoh,  and  you  shall  bring  my 
people  the  Israelites  out  of  Egypt." 

But  Moses  said  that  he  was  not  able  to  do  so 
great  a  work,  and  especially  that  he  was  not  clever 
enough  at  speaking  to  persuade  Pharaoh  to  let  the 
Israelites  go.  Even  when  God  promised  to  tell 
him  what  to  say,  he  still  shrank  from  the  task. 
But  God  said  that  his  brother  Aaron  should  go 
with  him  to  be  the  spokesman. 

Then  Moses  went  home  and  said  good-bye  to 
Jethro,  and  put  his  wife  and  his  two  sons  on  an 
ass,  and  started  for  Egypt.  And  on  the  way 
Aaron  met  him,  and  Moses  told  Aaron  all  that 
God  had  said  to  him.  When  Moses  and  Aaron 
came  to  Egypt,  they  gathered  together  all  the 
elders  or  leaders  of  the  Israelites,  and  Aaron  told 
them  that  God  was  about  to  deliver  them,  and  the 
Israelites  believed  them,  and  thanked  God. 

Then  Moses  and  Aaron  went  to  Pharaoh  and 
said,  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  '  Let 
my  people  go,  that  they  may  hold  a  feast  unto  Me 
in  the  wilderness.' ' 

But  Pharaoh  said,  "Who  is  Jehovah,  that  I 
should  obey  Him,  and  let  Israel  go  ?  " 

That  very  day  Pharaoh  ordered  the  taskmasters 
to  make  the  Israelites  work  harder  than  ever. 
Before  Moses  and  Aaron  went  to  Pharaoh,  the 
people  had  to  make  so  many  bricks  a  day,  and  had 
straw  given  them  for  the  bricks ;  but  now  they 


THE   BURNING  BUSH  61 

had  to  find  straw  for  themselves,  and  yet  to  make 
just  the  same  number -of  bricks.  And  they  went 
and  complained  to  Pharaoh,  and  said,  "  Why  are 
we  so  badly  treated?  The  taskmasters  give  us  no 
straw,  and  yet  they  tell  us  to  make  bricks,  and  we 
thy  servants  are  beaten,  and  it  is  not  our  fault 
that  we  cannot  make  bricks." 

And  Pharaoh  said,  "  You  are  idle !  You  are 
idle  !  So  you  pretend  to  wish  to  go  and  sacrifice 
to  Jehovah.  Go  and  do  your  work,  and  make 
your  full  number  of  bricks,  and  get  straw  for 
yourselves." 

As  the  Israelites  came  away  from  Pharaoh,  they 
met  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  they  abused  them,  and 
said,  "  Jehovah  look  upon  you  and  judge ;  you 
have  made  Pharaoh  and  his  officers  hate  us,  and 
have  given  them  an  excuse  for  killing  us." 

And  the  Israelites  no  longer  believed  that  Je- 
hovah was  going  to  deliver  them. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   TEN  PLAGUES 

GOD  did  not  desert  His  people,  although  they  so 
easily  lost  faith  in  the  deliverer  He  had  sent  to 
them.  He  made  Egypt  suffer  terrible  plagues,  to 
frighten  Pharaoh  into  letting  the  Israelites  go. 
These  are  called  the  "Ten  Plagues."  They  were  — 

1.  The  Plague  of  Blood.     The  water  of  the  Nile 
was  turned  into  blood. 

2.  The  Plague  of  Frogs. 

3.  The  Plague  of  Vermin. 

4.  The  Plague  of  Flies. 

The  Egyptians  were  pestered  first  with  frogs,  then 
with  vermin,  and  then  with  flies. 

5.  The  Plague  of  Murrain.     Their  cattle  all  died 
of  murrain,  or  cattle  disease. 

6.  The  Plague  of  Boils  and  Blains.     The  Egyp- 
tians were  afflicted  with  boils. 

7.  The  Plague  of  Hail.     There  was  a  thunder- 
storm with  great   hailstones,  which   destroyed   the 
crops. 

8.  The  Plague  of  Locusts.     There   came   multi- 
tudes of  locusts,  and  ate  up  what  had  not  been  spoilt 
by  the  hail. 

9.  The   Plague    of    Darkness.      For    three   days 

62      - 


THE   TEN   PLAGUES  63 

Egypt  was  covered  with  thick  darkness,  "which 
could  be  felt,"  as  the  story  puts  it. 

10.  The  Plague  of  the  Firstborn.  All  the  first- 
born children  in  Egypt  died  in  one  night. 

Now,  the  Israelites  were  not  afflicted  with  any 
of  these  plagues ;  they  did  not  lose  their  cattle  or 
their  children,  and,  when  it  was  dark  in  all  the 
rest  of  Egypt,  it  was  light  in  Goshen,  where  the 
Israelites  were.  Before  each  plague  Moses  warned 
Pharaoh ;  and,  when  the  plague  came,  Pharaoh 
always  begged  that  it  might  be  taken  away,  and 
promised  that,  if  it  was,  he  would  let  the  Israel- 
ites go.  But  each  time  when  the  plague  was  over 
Pharaoh  broke  his  promise,  and  did  not  let  them 
go.  Only  when  all  the  firstborn  died,  and  his  own 
firstborn  son  amongst  them,  he  allowed  the  Israelites 
to  go ;  and  they  went  away  at  once,  before  he  had 
time  to  change  his  mind.  But  you  shall  hear  more 
about  this  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  EXODUS 

I  MUST  tell  you  more  of  the  story  of  how  the 
Israelites  came  to  leave  Egypt  at  last.  After  the 
darkness  had  been  taken  away,  and  Pharaoh  had 
again  broken  his  promise,  Moses  told  him  that, 
unless  he  let  the  Israelites  go,  all  the  firstborn 
would  die.  But  Pharaoh  would  not  listen. 

And  Moses  told  the  Israelites  that  after  this 
plague  Pharaoh  would  at  last  let  them  go ;  and  he 
bade  them  get  ready  for  their  journey. 

That  night  they  kept  a  great  feast.  Every  family 
killed  a  lamb  and  roasted  it,  and  ate  it  together  in 
their  house,  with  unleavened  bread  and  bitter  herbs. 
And,  because  they  were  so  soon  to  set  out  on  their 
journey,  they  ate  it  in  travelling  dress,  with  their 
long  robes  girded  round  their  waist,  and  their  shoes 
on,  and  their  staves  in  their  hands.  And  they  ate 
it  in  haste.  But  before  their  meal,  they  put  some 
of  the  blood  of  the  lamb  at  the  top  and  sides  of  the 
doors  of  their  houses,  as  a  sign  that  God  would  not 
kill  their  firstborn.  This  feast,  which  the  Jews  still 
observe,  is  called  the  Passover,  because  God  passed 
over  the  Israelites  when  he  punished  the  Egyptians. 
The  New  Testament  speaks  of  Christ  as  "  our  Pass- 

64 


THE   EXODUS  65 

over,"  and  as  "  a  lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world,"  because  Christ  suffered  when(  the  Jews 
were  keeping  the  Passover,  and  because  by  His 
death  we  have  assurance  that  God  will  be  merciful 
to  those  who  believe  in  Him,  as  He  was  to  the 
Israelites. 

But  to  come  back  to  the  story.  It  goes  on  —  at 
midnight,  while  the  Israelites  were  feasting,  Jehovah 
smote  all  the  firstborn  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  from 
the  firstborn  of  Pharaoh  on  his  throne  to  the  first- 
born of  the  prisoner  in  the  dungeon.  Pharaoh  rose 
up  in  the  night,  and  all  his  servants,  and  all  the 
Egyptians ;  and  there  was  a  great  cry  in  Egypt, 
for  there  was  not  a  house  where  there  was  not  one 
dead.  Pharaoh  called  for  Moses  and  Aaron  by 
night,  and  bade  them  and  the  Israelites  leave  Egypt 
at  once ;  and  al}  the  Egyptians  were  eager  for  the 
Israelites  to  go,  for  they  said,  "We  are  all  dead 
men."  The  Israelites  asked  them  for  gold  and 
silver  and  clothes ;  and  the  Egyptians  were  willing 
to  give  them  anything,  if  they  would  only  go. 

So  they  started  on  their  journey,  a  very  great 
host  of  men,  women,  and  children,  with  many  flocks 
and  herds. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   RED   SEA 

AFTER  the  Israelites  were  gone,  Pharaoh  and  the 
Egyptians  began  to  get  over  their  fright,  and  they 
were  sorry  that  they  had  let  them  go.  And  Pharaoh 
got  together  a  great  army,  with  chariots  and  horses, 
and  pursued  the  Israelites.  Now  the  Israelites  in 
their  journey  had  come  to  the  sea,  and  were  encamped 
upon  the  shore,  so  that  the  water  was  in  front  of 
them,  and  the  great  army  of  Pharaoh  behind  them ; 
they  were  shut  in,  and  could  not  escape.  When 
they  saw  the  Egyptians,  they  were  very  frightened, 
and  their  faith  failed  them  again. 

They  said  to  Moses,  "  Were  there  no  graves  in 
Egypt,  that  you  have  brought  us  out  to  die  in  the 
wilderness  ?  Let  us  alone,  that  we  may  serve  the 
Egyptians.  We  had  better  be  their  slaves  than  die 
in  the  wilderness." 

But  Moses  said,  "  Do  not  be  afraid ;  stand  still, 
and  see  the  great  victory  which  Jehovah  will  win 
for  you  to-day.  You  have  seen  Pharaoh's  army,  but 
you  will  never  see  it  again.  Jehovah  will  fight  for 
you,  while  you  stand  still  and  look  on." 

And  Jehovah  said  to  Moses,  "  Speak  to  the  Israel- 

66 


THE  BED   SEA  67 

ites,  that  they  go  forward  ;  lift  up  your  rod,  and 
.stretch  out  your  hand  over  the  sea,  and  it  shall 
divide,  and  the  Israelites  shall  go  into  the  midst 
of  the  sea  on  dry  ground." 

Moses  stretched  out  his  hand  over  the  sea,  and 
Jehovah  drove  back  the  sea  all  the  night  by  a  strong 
east  wind,  and  made  the  sea  dry  land,  and  the  waters 
were  divided.  The  Israelites  went  into  the  midst 
of  the  sea  upon  the  dry  ground,  and  the  waters  pro- 
tected them  like  a  wall  on  their  right  hand  and  on 
their  left.  And  the  Egyptians  pursued,  and  went  in 
after  them  into  the  midst  of  the  sea,  with  all  Pharaoh's 
chariots  and  horsemen. 

And  Jehovah  said  unto  Moses,  "  Stretch  out  your 
hand  over  the  sea,  that  the  waters  may  flow  back 
upon  the  Egyptians." 

Moses  stretched  out  his  hand  over  the  sea,  and 
when  the  day  dawned  the  waters  returned  to  their 
usual  place.  Then  the  Egyptians  tried  to  flee  back 
again  to  the  shore.  But  the  waters  covered  the 
chariots  and  the  horsemen  and  all  Pharaoh's  army 
that  went  in  after  them  into  the  sea ;  they  were  all 
drowned,  not  one  escaped.  But  the  Israelites  walked 
on  dry  land  in  the  midst  of  the  sea ;  and,  before  the 
waters  returned,  they  were  all  safe  on  the  other  side. 
In  the  morning  they  saw  the  dead  bodies  of  the 
Egyptians  strewn  along  the  seashore.  Then  the 
Israelites  feared  Jehovah,  and  believed  in  Him,  and 
in  His  servant  Moses. 

And  Miriam  the  prophetess,  the  sister   of  Moses 


68  MOSES   AND  JOSHUA 

and  Aaron,  took  a  timbrel_  in  her  hand,  and  all  the 
women  went  out  after  her,  and  they  danced  and 
played  upon  their  timbrels,  and  sang :  — 

Sing  to  Jehovah,  for  He  hath  triumphed  gloriously  : 
The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown  into  the  sea. 

. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   WANDERINGS   IN  THE   WILDERNESS 

WHEN  the  Israelites  had  crossed  the  sea,  they 
found  themselves  in  the  wilderness  through  which 
their  forefathers  had  often  journeyed  on  the  way  to 
Canaan,  where  the  patriarchs  had  pitched  their  tents. 
But,  before  they  reached  Canaan,  they  wandered 
many  years  in  the  old  nomad  fashion  from  one  desert 
pasture  to  another,  very  much  as  they  had  done  be- 
fore they  went  down  to  Egypt.  And  they  met  with 
God  in  the  wilderness,  like  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  in  the  days  of  old,  and  Elijah  long  after- 
wards. Through  all  their  history  the  Israelites 
looked  back  to  this  wandering  in  the  wilderness,  as  *' 
to  the  days  of  the  patriarchs,  as  a  time  when  God  I 
was  very  near  to  His  people.  They  felt  that  the 
deliverance  from  Pharaoh  was  a  token  of  God's 
love  for  Israel,  an  assurance  of  His  care  and  pro- 
tection. 

They  loved  to  tell  how  the  presence  of  God  was 
with  Israel  then,  as  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  a 
pillar  of  fire  by  night,  and  how  with  His  own  voice 
He  gave  them  from  Mount  Sinai  the  laws  which  we 

69 


70  MOSES   AND   JOSHUA 

call  the  Ten  Commandments.  But  the  story  of  the 
wandering  is  chiefly  the  story  of  Moses ;  how, 
through  that  great  leader  and  chieftain,  Jehovah 
taught  Israel  to  know  Himself  and  His  will. 
Through  long  years  Moses  led  and  governed  the 
people,  and  the  magic  of  his  authority  taught  the 
wild  tribes  to  keep  the  peace  together,  and  to  fight 
loyally  side  by  side.  And  the  bond  of  union  was 
their  common  faith  in  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel. 
For  the  secret  of  the  strength  of  great  nations  is 
their  faith  in  God. 

But  in  these  days  Israel  was  only  beginning  to 
be  a  nation,  and  to  know  Jehovah.  The  same 
stories  which  tell  us  of  God's  great  goodness  to 
them,  tell  us  also  of  their  ingratitude ;  how  God 
gave  them  food  straight  from  heaven,  just  as  He 
gives  us  fresh  air  and  warmth  and  sunshine,  just 
as  parents  provide  food  for  their  children ;  and  how 
they  grumbled  and  were  disobedient,  just  as  chil- 
dren sometimes  do,  and  just  as  men  nowadays  grum- 
ble against  God  and  disobey  Him,  though  they  have 
far  more  delightful  and  wonderful  things  to  enjoy 
than  food  rained  down  from  heaven. 

And  so  it  was  a  long  time  before  Israel  reached 
Canaan;  nearly  all  the  Israelites  who  left  Egypt 
died,  and  still  their  children  wandered  in  the  wilder- 
ness. But  all  the  while,  in  spite  of  their  grumbling 
and  disobedience,  Moses  was  still  their  master,  and 
God  still  helped  him  to  train  them  to  be  His  people. 
And  at  last  thev  came  to  the  lands  east  of  the 


THE   WANDERINGS   IN   THE   WILDERNESS         71 

-" 

Jordan,  and  conquered  the  kings  of  that  country, 
and  settled  there  for  a  time.  But  when  they  were 
just  about  to  cross  the  Jordan  into  Canaan,  Moses 
died.  He  only  lived  to  look  across  the  river,  and 
see  the  Promised  Land,  and  then  God  took  him  to 
Himself. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   CONQUEST   OF  JERICHO 

AFTER  the  death  of  Moses,  the  Israelites  began  to 
conquer  the  country  west  of  Jordan,  which  was 
divided  between  a  number  of  cities,  each  with  its 
own  king.  Their  new  leader  was  Joshua,  and  as 
the  stories  you  have  been  reading  are  taken  out  of 
the  Books  of  Moses,  which  tell  us  about  Moses, 
so  the  stories  about  the  conquest  of  Canaan  are  from 
the  Book  of  Joshua,  which  tells  about  Joshua. 

It  tells  us  that,  after  Moses  was  dead,  God  com- 
manded Joshua  to  lead  the  Israelites  into  Canaan. 
They  were  encamped  in  the  plain  east  of  the  Jordan, 
not  far  from  the  river;  and  just  opposite,  on  the 
plain  to  the  west  of  the  river,  stood  the  great 
Canaanite  city  of  Jericho,  which  was  the  first  city 
they  would  have  to  attack  when  they  had  crossed 
the  river.  So  Joshua  sent  two  spies  secretly  across 
the  Jordan  to  find  out  about  Jericho.  They  dis- 
guised themselves  and  got  into  Jericho,  and  lodged 
at  the  house  of  a  woman  named  Rahab.  But  some 
one  had  seen  them,  and  recognized  that  they  were 
Israelites;  and  the  king  of  Jericho  heard  of  them, 
and  sent  to  Rahab's  house  to  fetch  them.  But  Rahab 
hid  them  upon  the  roof,  under  a  heap  of  flax-stalks ; 

72 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   JERICHO  73 

and  when  the  king's  messengers  came,  she  said  that 
the  Israelites  had  left  her  house,  and  gone  out  of  the 
city.  And  the  messengers  hurried  away  to  try  and 
catch  the  spies  before  they  could  get  across  the 
Jordan  again.  Rahab  made  the  spies  promise  that, 
when  the  Israelites  took  Jericho,  they  would  spare 
her  and  her  family  ;  and  they  told  her  to  tie  a  scarlet 
cord  in  her  window,  that  they  might  know  her 
house. 

Rahab's  house  was  on  the  wall  of  the  city,  so 
she  let  the  spies  down  by  a  rope  out  of  her  window, 
and  they  went  and  hid  themselves  amongst  the  hills 
till  the  men  of  Jericho  had  given  up  looking  for 
them;  and  then  they  crossed  the  river,  and  told 
Joshua  that  they  were  sure  that  Israel  could  con- 
quer Canaan,  because  all  the  people  were  very  much 
afraid  of  them,  or,  as  the  story  puts  it,  "did  melt 
away  before  us." 

The  next  day  the  Israelites  crossed  the  Jordan. 
The  Ark  —  the  sacred  chest,  which  was  the  symbol 
of  God's  presence  —  went  first,  and  the  waters  of 
Jordan  divided  before  it,  and  left  a  dry  passage  for 
the  Israelites.  So  they  crossed  the  river  and  en- 
camped before  Jericho.  And,  at  the  command  of 
God,  the  Israelites  marched  round  and  round  Jeri- 
cho, and  the  Ark  was  carried  at  the  head  of  the 
army.  For  six  days  they  marched  round  once  every 
day  ;  and  the  seventh  day  they  marched  round  seven 
times,  and  at  the  end  of  the  seventh  time  the  priests 
blew  with  their  trumpets,  and  the  people  shouted, 


74  MOSES   AND   JOSHUA 

and  the  walls  fell  down  all  of  a  heap.  Then  the 
Israelites  took  the  city  and  burnt  it,  and  killed  all 
the  people  of  Jericho.  But  first  the  spies  went  to 
Rahab's  house,  and  brought  her  and  her  family  away 
safely,  and  they  lived  amongst  the  Israelites. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  GIBEONITES 

IF  the  Canaanites  were  afraid  of  Israel  before, 
their  fear  was  much  greater  when  they  heard  that 
Jericho  had  been  taken  and  destroyed. 

Some  of  them  submitted  to  Israel.  The  people 
of  Gibeon  played  the  Israelites  a  trick,  in  order  to 
make  peace  with  them.  They  feared  that,  if  the 
Israelites  knew  that  they  were  Canaanites,  they 
would  kill  them  all,  as  they  had  killed  the  men  of 
Jericho.  So  they  sent  ambassadors  to  Joshua,  with 
old  sacks  upon  their  asses,  and  worn-out  wine-skins 
patched  and  mended.  And  the  ambassadors  wore 
old  clothes  and  worn-out  clouted  shoes,  and  they 
brought  dry,  mouldy  bread  with  them.  And  they 
came  to  Joshua  and  said,  "  We  are  come  from  a  far 
country  to  make  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  alliance 
with  you,  because  we  have  heard  what  great  things 
your  God,  Jehovah,  has  done  for  you.  You  can 
see  what  a  long  way  we  have  come,  for  this  dry 
and  mouldy  bread  was  hot  from  the  oven,  and  these 
mended  wine-skins  and  shabby,  travel-stained  clothes 
and  patched  shoes  were  all  new  when  we  started,  and 
they  have  worn  out  because  our  journey  has  been 
very  long." 

76 


76        ,  MOSES  AND   JOSHUA 

Then  the  Israelites  ate  a  very  little  of  the  mouldy 
bread  as  a  sign  of  friendship,  and  made  a  treaty  with 
the  Gibeonites. 

But,  the  next  day  but  one,  the  Israelites  came  to 
Gibeon,  and  found  that  the  city  of  these  shabby 
ambassadors  was  really  a  Canaanite  city  close  by. 
Then  they  were  very  angry  because  the  Gibeonites 
had  told  lies  and  deceived  them,  and  they  wished  to 
put  them  all  to  death.  But  Joshua  would  not  let 
the  Israelites  break  their  promise,  and  the  Gibeonites 
became  tributary  to  them,  and  had  to  be  their  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  without  being  paid 
for  it. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  BATTLE   OF   BETH-HOKON 

THE  Gibeonites  only  escaped  one  danger  to  fall 
into  another.  When  the  Canaanite  kings  heard  that 
Gibeon  had  made  peace  with  Israel,  they  were  very 
angry.  Adoni-zedek,  king  of  Jerusalem,  sent  to  the 
kings  of  four  other  cities,  and  the  five  of  them  got 
together  a  great  army,  and  laid  siege  to  Gibeon. 
Then  the  Gibeonites  sent  to  Joshua  to  help  them. 
Joshua  and  his  army  marched  as  fast  as  they  could 
all  through  the  night,  and  came  suddenly  upon  the 
Canaanites,  and  defeated  them,  and  put  them  to 
flight.  They  chased  them  up  the  pass  of  Beth- 
horon,  and  killed  a  great  many  of  them  ;  and  they 
went  on  chasing  them  down  the  pass,  and  Jehovah 
sent  a  terrible  storm  of  hail,  and  more  Canaanites 
were  killed  by  the  hailstones  than  by  the  swords  of 
the  Israelites.  The  Book  of  Joshua  quotes  some 
lines  from  an  old  book  of  Hebrew  poetry,  the  Book 
of  Jashar.  "  Joshua  said  :  — 

"  Sun,  stand  thou  still  upon  Gibeon ; 
And  thou,  moon,  in  the  valley  of  Aijalon. 
And  the  sun  stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed 
Until  the  nation  had  avenged  themselves  of  their  enemies." 

This  poetry  shows  how  long  the  day  seemed  to 
the  Israelites ;  they  kept  on  chasing  and  killing  the 

77 


78  MOSES   AND   JOSHUA 

Canaanites  until  those  who  were  still  left  escaped  to 
their  cities.  Then  the  Israelites  went  back  to  then- 
camp.  Meanwhile  the  five  kings  had  been  taken 
prisoners,  and  Joshua  put  them  to  death. 

After  the  glorious  victory  of  Beth-horon,  Joshua 
took  a  great  many  of  the  Canaanite  cities.  He  won 
another  victory  far  away  in  the  north  of  Canaan,  at 
the  Waters  of  Merom,  over  the  kings  of  the  northern 
cities.  Before  Joshua  died,  the  tribes  of  Israel  were 
firmly  established  east  of  Jordan,  and  were  masters 
of  much  of  the  country.  But  a  great  deal  of  the 
land  still  belonged  to  the  Canaanites,  and  Israel  had 
to  fight  many  battles,  winning  some  and  losing 
some,  before  they  conquered  all  Canaan.  The  settle- 
ment in  Canaan  made  a  great  change  in  the  life  of 
the  Israelites.  Most  of  them  gave  up  living  in 
tents,  and  wandering  about  with  their  flocks  and 
herds.  They  built  houses,  and  lived  in  villages  and 
towns;  and  had  cornfields  and  vineyards;  and  made 
wine  and  oil. 


Ill 

THE  JUDGES,  EUTH,  AND  SAMUEL 


CHAPTER  I  ' 


DEBORAH  AND   BARAK 

FOR  a  long  while  after  the  death  of  Joshua  there 
was  no  Israelite  chief  who  was  obeyed  by  all  the 
tribes.  They  were  not  united  as  they  were  in  the 
time  of  Moses.  Sometimes  one  tribe  would  have  a 
little  war  of  its  own  against  its  Canaanite  neighbours; 
sometimes  three  or  four  tribes  united  against  the 
enemy;  and  sometimes  the  tribes  of  Israel  had  civil 
wars,  and  fought  against  each  other.  They  were 
disobedient  to  Jehovah,  as  they  had  been  in  the 
wilderness,  and  often  worshipped  other  gods.  As 
the  Book  of  Judges,  which  tells  us  most  of  the 
stories  about  this  time,  says :  "  There  was  no  king 
in  Israel  in  those  days;  every__man_did  that_which 
was  jrighiJnJiis^wn_eyesL' ' 

The  leaders  of  Israel  in  these  days  were  called 
"Judges,"  but  the  stories  in  the  book  which  tells  us 
about  them  are  all  about  fighting.  The  first  you 
shall  hear  is  that  of  Deborah  and  Barak. 

79 


80       THE  JUDGES,  RUTH,  AND  SAMUEL 

The  Israelites  disobeyed  God,  and  He  allowed 
Jabin,  king  of  Hazor,  to  the  north  of  Palestine,  to 
oppress  them  for  'twenty  years.  Then  they  prayed 
to  God,  and  He  raised  up  Deborah  and  Barak  to 
deliver  them. 

Deborah  was  the  wife  of  a  man  named  Lappidoth. 
She  was  a  prophetess,  and  could  teach  people  the  will 
of  God,  and  what  was  right  for  them  to  do ;  and 
disputes  were  brought  to  her  to  be  settled:  as  the 
Book  of  Judges  says,  "  She  judged  Israel  at  that 
time."  But,  when  it  came  to  be  a  question  of  fight-' 
ing,  she  wanted  a  man  to  help  her ;  so  she  sent  for 
Barak,  and  told  him  that  it  was  the  will  of  Jehovah, 
God  of  Israel,  that  he  should  gather  together  an 
army,  and  conquer  Jabin,  and  deliver  Israel. 

Barak  said,  "  If  you  will  go  with  me,  I  will  go ; 
but,  if  you  will  not  go  with  me,  I  will  not  go." 

And  she  said,  "  To  be  sure  I  will  go  with  you ; 
but  then  you  will  get  little  honour  from  this  war,  for 
people  will  say  that  God  gave  victory  to  Israel  by 
means  of  a  woman." 

So  Deborah  and  Barak  went  together,  and  gathered 
an  army. 

The  Book  of  Judges  gives  us  a  very  ancient  He- 
brew poem  about  the  war  with  Jabin.  This  poem  is 
often  called  the  Song  of  Deborah.  The  Song  tells 
us  which  of  the  tribes  united  to  follow  Deborah  and 
Barak.  Ephraim  came  and  Benjamin  and  Machir, 
which  was  a  part  of  Manasseh,  and  Zebulun  and 
Issachar  and  Naphtali,  Barak's  own  tribe.  These 


DEBORAH   AND   BARAK  81 

were  the  tribes  in  the  centre  and  the  north.  But 
the  Song  says  that  Dan  and  Asher  on  the  seacoast, 
and  Reuben  and  Gilead,  that  is  Gad,  beyond  Jordan, 
stayed  at  home.  Reuben 

Sat  among  the  sheepfolds 

To  hear  the  shepherds  pipe  to  their  flocks. 

While  Deborah  and  Barak  were  mustering  their 
soldiers,  Jabin  sent  against  them  a  great  army  with 
nine  hundred  chariots  of  iron,  under  his  general, 
Sisera.  They  met  near  Mount  Tabor,  and  Jehovah 
gave  the  victory  to  Israel.  The  Song  says  :  — 

The  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against  Sisera ; 
The  river  Kishon  swept  them  away. 

Barak  pursued  the  chariots  and  all  the  army  of 
the  Canaanites,  and  they  were  all  killed  ;  not  a  man 
was  left  alive. 

But  the  general  Sisera  got  out  of  his  chariot,  and 
ran  away  alone  on  foot,  and  came  to  the  tent  of  Jael, 
the  wife  of  Heber  the  Kenite.  Now  the  Kenites  were 
friends  both  with  the  Canaanites  and  the  Israelites. 
Jael  went  out  to  meet  Sisera,  and  said  to  him, 

"  Come  into  my  tent,  my  lord ;  you  will  be  safe 
there." 

He  was  tired  and  thirsty,  and  he  came  in  and  lay 
down ;  and  Jael  covered  him  with  a  rug,  and  gave 
him  milk  to  drink.  And  he  said,  "  Stand  in  the 
door  of  the  tent,  and  if  any  one  asks  if  there  is  a 
man  here,  say  '  No.' ' 

Then  he  went  to  sleep,  feeling  quite  safe,  because 


82  THE   JUDGES,    RUTH,    AND    SAMUEL 

these  ancient  tribes  counted  it  a  shameful  and  wicked 
thing  to  betray  the  stranger  whom  they  sheltered 
and  fed.  But  Jael  waited  till  he  was  fast  asleep, 
then  she  took  a  tent-peg  and  a  mallet,  and  crept 
softly  behind  Sisera,  and  drove  the  peg  through  his 
temples  and  killed  him. 

Now  Barak  was  pursuing  Sisera,  and  he  came  to 
the  tent,  and  Jael  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  said, 

"  Come,  and  I  will  show  you  the  man  you  are 
looking  for." 

And  she  brought  him  in,  and  there  was  Sisera 
lying  dead,  with  the  tent-peg  through  his  temples. 

After  this  victory,  the  Israelites  gained  other  vic- 
tories over  Jabin,  king  of  Hazor,  until  they  were 
quite  delivered  from  him. 


CHAPTER  II 

.       GIDEON 

AT  another  time,  the  Midianites  from  the  east  of 
Jordan  oppressed  Israel,  so  that  the  people  left  their 
fields  and  villages,  and  went  to  live  in  the  moun- 
tains, in  dens  and  caves  and  strong  places  amongst 
the  rocks.  The  Israelites  sowed  their  corn  ;  but, 
when  it  was  ripe  and  ready  to  be  cut,  the  Midian- 
ites came  in  countless  swarms,  with  tents  and  cattle 
and  camels,  and  took  all  the  harvest  and  all  the 
sheep  and  oxen  and  asses.  There  was  no  food  left 
for  the  Israelites.  And  the  Israelites  prayed  to 
Jehovah,  and  He  sent  them  a  deliverer. 

Gideon,  the  son  of  Joash,  of  Abiezer  in  Manasseh, 
was  beating  out  wheat  in  the  wine-press,  instead  of 
the  threshing-floor,  to  hide  it  from  the  Midianites. 
And  the  Angel  of  Jehovah  appeared  to  him,  and 
said,  "Jehovah  is  with  thee,  thou  mighty  man  of 
valour.  Go  and  save  Israel  from  the  Midianites. 
Have  not  I  sent  thee  ?  " 

But  Gideon  said,  "  O  Lord,  how  shall  /save  Israel? 
my  clan  is  the  poorest  in  Manasseh,  and  I  am  the 
least  in  my  father's  house." 

But  Jehovah  promised  to  be  with  him,  and  give 
him  victory ;  and  Gideon  asked  for  a  sign,  and  the 
angel  gave  him  a  sign.  Gideon  brought  meat  and 

83 


84  THE  JUDGES,    RUTH,   AND   SAMUEL 

cakes  of  unleavened  bread  and  broth ;  and  he  laid 
the  bread  and  meat,  and  poured  out  the  broth,  on 
a  rock  before  the  angel.  And  the  angel  touched 
the  food  with  the  end  of  the  staff  he  had  in  his 
hand ;  and  fire  came  out  of  the  rock,  and  burnt 
up  the  meat  and  cakes,  and  the  angel  vanished. 

The  same  night  Jehovah  said  to  Gideon,  "  Take 
one  of  your  father's  bullocks,  and  pull  down  the 
altar  of  Baal,  the  false  god  of  the  Canaanites, 
which  belongs  to  your  father ;  and  build  an  altar 
to  Jehovah,  and  sacrifice  the  bullock  upon  it." 

Gideon  did  as  God  told  him ;  and  when  the 
neighbours  got  up  in  the  morning,  they  saw  Baal's 
altar  had  been  pulled  down,  and  there  was  a  new 
altar  built,  and  a  bullock  lying  upon  it.  When 
they  found  out  that  Gideon  had  done  this,  they 
wanted  to  kill  him.  But  his  father  Joash  said, 
"  If  Baal  is  really  a  god,  he  himself  can  punish 
Gideon."  So  the  people  of  Abiezer  did  not  harm 
Gideon ;  and,  when  they  saw  that  Baal  did  not 
punish  him,  they  most  likely  left  off  believing  in 
Baal. 

About  this  time  the  Midianites,  with  a  great 
many  other  eastern  tribes,  crossed  the  Jordan  to 
plunder  Israel,  and  they  encamped  in  Jezreel.  But 
the  spirit  of  Jehovah  came  upon  Gideon,  and  he 
blew  a  trumpet  in  Abiezer,  and  the  people  came 
to  fight  under  his  leadership ;  and  he  gathered  an 
army  from  the  northern  tribes,  Manasseh,  Asher, 
Zebulun,  and  Naphtali. 


GIDEON  85 

And  Gideon  asked  God  for  another  sign,  and 
said,  "  I  will  put  a  fleece  of  wool  on  the  threshing- 
floor.  If  there  be  dew  on  the  fleece  only,  while 
all  the  ground  round  about  is  dry,  it  will  be  a  sign 
that  I  shall  lead  Israel  to  victory." 

When  Gideon  got  up  next  morning,  the  ground 
was  dry,  but  the  fleece  was  so  wet  with  dew  that  he 
wrung  a  bowlful  of  water  out  of  it.  Still  he  was 
not  satisfied,  but  asked  for  yet  another  sign,  and 
said  to  God,  "Do  not  be  angry  with  me,  if  I  ask 
for  just  one  more  sign.  This  time  let  the  fleece  be 
dry,  and  all  the  ground  round  about  wet  with  dew." 

And  next  morning  the  fleece  was  dry,  and  the 
ground  was  wet. 

Then  Gideon  took  courage,  and  marched  against 
the  Midianites  with  a  large  army.  But  Jehovah 
told  Gideon  that  the  army  was  too  large.  If  they 
got  the  victory,  they  would  think  it  was  by  theirv 
own  strength,  and  not  by  Jehovah's.  He  bade 
Gideon  tell  his  men  that  all  who*  were  afraid  might 
go  home  ;  and  twenty-two  thousand  went  home. 

But  there  were  still  ten  thousand  left,  and  Jeho- 
vah said  that  these  were  too  many ;  and  He  bade 
Gideon  bring  them  down  to  the  water,  and  to  send 
home  all  who  knelt  to  drink,  and  to  keep  those 
who  stooped  and  raised  the  water  to  their  mouth 
with  their  hands.  They  all  knelt  except  three 
hundred,  so  Gideon  kept  the  three  hundred,  and 
sent  the  rest  home. 

He  and  his  men  were  on  the  hills,  and  the  camp 


86       THE  JUDGES,  KUTH,  AND  SAMUEL 

of  the  Midianites  was  in  the  valley  beneath;  and  at 
night  he  and  his  servant  went  down,  and  got  close 
to  some  of  the  enemy  without  being  found  out. 
And  they  heard  a  man  telling  his  companion  a  dream. 

"  I  dreamed,"  said  he,  "  that  a  cake  of  barley-bread 
tumbled  into  the  camp  of  Midian,  and  rolled  along 
till  it  came  to  a  tent  and  struck  it,  and  turned  it 
upside  down,  and  laid  it  flat  on  the  ground." 

"  This,"  said  his  companion,  "  is  nothing  else  than 
the  sword  of  Gideon,  the  son  of  Joash,  a  man  of 
Israel.  God  has  delivered  Midian  and  all  the  army 
into  his  hand." 

Gideon  was  much  encouraged  when  he  heard  the 
dream  and  its  interpretation,  and  he  went  back  to 
his  men,  and  said,  "  Arise,  for  Jehovah  has  delivered 
the  army  of  Midian  into  your  hands." 

And  he  gave  each  of  them  a  trumpet  and  an  empty 
pitcher  with  a  torch  inside  it,  and  said  to  them, 
"  Watch  me,  and  do  what  you  see  me  do.  When 
I  blow  my  trumpet,  all  of  you  blow  your  trumpets, 
and  shout,  'For  Jehovah  and  for  Gideon.'" 

He  divided  his  men  into  three  companies  of  a  hun- 
dred each,  and  the  three  companies  marched  down 
in  the  night,  and  came  close  to  three  different  sides 
of  the  camp,  just  when  the  Midianites  had  posted 
fresh  sentinels.  And  the  Israelites  blew  the  trum- 
pets; they  broke  the  pitchers,  and  waved  the  torches 
with  their  left  hands,  while  they  held  their  trumpets 
in  their  right  hands  ;  and  they  shouted,  "  The  sword 
of  Jehovah  and  of  Gideon."  They  did  not  attack 


GIDEON  87 

the  enemy,  but  just  stood,  and  shouted,  and  waved 
the  torches  and  blew  the  trumpets.  When  the  Midi- 
anites  were  awakened  by  such  a  din  of  shouting  and 
trumpet-blowing,  and  saw  lights  on  every  side,  they 
thought  they  were  surrounded  by  a  great  army  of 
enemies ;  and  in  their  fright  and  confusion  they 
began  to  fight  with  each  other  in  the  dark,  and  then 
they  all  ran  away.  And  Gideon  sent  messengers, 
and  the  Israelites  came  from  far  and  wide,  and  pur- 
sued them,  and  killed  a  great  many,  and  gained 
more  victories  over  them,  and  captured  and  slew 
four  of  their  princes,  one  of  whom  was  called  the 
Wolf,  and  another  the  Raven. 

So  Gideon  delivered  the  northern  tribes  of  Israel 
from  the  Midianites,  and  was  judge  over  Israel  all 
his  life , 


/ 


CHAPTER  III 

JEPHTHAH 

AT  another  time  the  Ammonites  came  to  fight 
against  the  Israelites  who  lived  in  Gilead,  east  of 
Jordan,  and  the  Israelites  wanted  a  brave  captain 
to  lead  them  against  the  enemy.  Now  there  was 
a  man  named  Jephthah,  whose  half-brothers  had 
driven  him  away  from  home  that  they  might  have 
all  their  father's  property  for  themselves.  And 
Jephthah  gathered  a  robber  band  and  did  many 
daring  deeds,  so  that  all  Gilead  spoke  of  him  as 
"a  mighty  man  of  valour,"  just  as  men  in  later 
days  spoke  of  Hereward  the  Saxon  or  Rob  Roy. 
So,  in  their  trouble,  the  elders  of  Gilead  asked 
Jephthah  to  be  their  leader,  and  the  people  and 
their  elders  swore  a  solemn  oath  before  Jehovah  at 
His  temple  at  Mizpah,  that,  if  Jephthah  would  lead 
them  against  the  Ammonites,  he  should  be  head 
and  chief  of  Gilead.  So  Jephthah  consented.  And 
the  spirit  of  Jehovah  came  upon  Jephthah,  and  he 
gathered  an  army  from  Gilead  and  Manasseh,  and 
marched  against  the  enemy. 

But  first  he  vowed  a  vow  to  Jehovah,  and  said, 
"  If  thou  wilt  indeed  give  me  the  victory  over 
Ammon,  and  I  return  home  in  peace,  the  first  living 


JEPHTHAH  89 

thing  that  comes  out  to  meet  me  shall  be  Jehovah's, 
and  I  will  offer  it  up  for  a  burnt-offering." 

Then  Jephthah  fought  against  the  Ammonites, 
and  Jehovah  gave  him  the  victory;  and  he  pursued 
them,  and  took  twenty  of  their  cities,  and  killed  a 
great  many  of  them.  So  Gilead  was  delivered  from 
the  Ammonites. 

Then  Jephthah  went  home  to  Mizpah,  and  his 
daughter  came  out  to  meet  him,  dancing  and  playing 
on  the  timbrel.  She  was  his  only  child ;  he  had  no 
other  son  or  daughter.  When  he  saw  her,  he  tore 
his  clothes,  and  said,  "  Alas,  my  daughter  !  you  have 
brought  me  very  low,  and  into  sore  distress  ;  for  I 
have  made  a  promise  to  Jehovah,  and  I  cannot  go 
back." 

And  she  said,  "My  father,  keep  your  promise  to 
Jehovah,  since  He  has  given  you  vengeance  over 
your  enemies ;  but  let  me  go  with  my  companions 
to  the  mountains  for  two  months,  and  lament." 

He  let  her  go,  and  after  two  months  she  came 
back;  and  the  story  says,  "  He  did  with  her  according 
to  his  vow  which  he.  vowed." 

And  there  was  other  trouble  in  store  for  Jephthah. 
The  men  of  Ephrairn  were  jealous  and  angry  because 
they  had  not  been  asked  to  fight  against  Ammon ; 
and  they  threatened  to  burn  Jephthah's  house ;  and 
they  insulted  and  abused  the  men  of  Gilead,  though 
Ephraim  and  Gilead  were  both  tribes  of  Israel.  The 
Ephraimites  crossed  the  Jordan  to  fight  against  Jeph- 
thah, but  they  were  defeated  by  him  and  his  Gileadite 


90  THE   JUDGES,   KUTH,    AND    SAMUEL 

followers.  After  the  battle,  the  Gileadites  guarded 
the  fords  of  the  Jordan,  by  which  the  Ephraimites 
would  have  to  get  back  to  their  homes  on  the  west 
of  the  river.  When  an  Ephraimite  came  to  one  of 
the  fords,  and  said,  "  Let  me  go  over,"  the  men  of 
Gilead  would  say  to  him,  "  Are  you  an  Ephraimite  ?  " 
And  if  he  said  "  No,"  then  they  said,  "  Say  now 
Shibboleth,"  and  he  would  say  "  Sibboleth,"  because 
the  Ephraimites  could  not  pronounce  "  sh  "  properly, 
but  said  us"  instead.  Then  they  knew  he  was  an 
Ephraimite,  and  laid  hold  of  him,  and  killed  him. 
Altogether  forty -two  thousand  Ephraimites  were 
killed.  So  Jephthah  delivered  Gilead  from  Ammon 
and  from  Ephraim,  and  was  judge  over  the  Gileadites. 


CHAPTER   IV 

RUTH 

THE  story  of  Ruth  has  a  whole  book  of  the  Bible 
to  itself,  but  I  have  put  it  with  the  stories  about 
the  Judges,  because  it  begins,  "  In  the  days  when 
the  judges  judged."  It  goes  on  :  there  was  a  famine 
in  the  land  of  Israel,  and  there  were  living  at  Beth- 
lehem, in  Judah,  Elimelech  and  his  wife  Naomi, 
and  their  two  sons  Mahlon  and  Chilion.  And 
because  of  the  famine,  they  went  across  the  Jordan 
into  Moab,  where  there  was  more  food  to  be  had. 
They  lived  in  Moab  a  long  time,  and  Elimelech 
died,  and  Mahlon  and  Chilion  married  two  Moabite 
wives,  Orpah  and  Ruth.  When  they  had  been 
ten  years  in  Moab,  Mahlon  and  Chilion  died,  and 
Naomi  heard  that  through  the  goodness  of  Jehovah 
there  was  now  plenty  of  food  in  Judah,  and  she 
decided  to  go  back  to  her  friends  and  her  old 
home.  So  she  set  out  for  Bethlehem,  and  Orpah 
and  Ruth  started  to  go  with  her. 

But  Naomi  said  to  them,  "Do  you  each  of  you 
go  back  to  your  mother's  house;  may  Jehovah  deal 
kindly  with  you,  as  you  have  dealt  with  the  dead, 
and  with  me.  Jehovah  grant  that  each  of  you 
may  find  a  home  with  a  second  husband." 

91 


92       THE  JUDGES,  KUTH,  AND  SAMUEL 

And  she  kissed  them,  and  they  wept  aloud,  and 
said  to  Naomi,  "Nay,  but  we  will  go  back  with 
you  to  your  people." 

But  still  Naomi  tried  to  persuade  them  to  go 
back  to  their  old  homes  ;  and  at  last  Orpah  kissed 
her,  and  bade  her  good-bye,  and  went  away  home 
to  her  mother. 

But  Ruth  would  not  leave  Naomi ;  she  said, 
"  Where  you  go  I  will  go,  and  where  you  stay  I 
will  stay;  your  people  shall  be  my  people,  and 
your  God  my  God ;  where  you  die  I  will  die,  and 
there  will  I  be  buried." 

So  they  both  went  on  together  till  they  came 
to  Bethlehem.  And  the  whole  town  was  greatly 
excited  about  them,  and  the  women  came  round 
them,  and  said,  "  Is  this  Naomi  ?  " 

Now  Naomi  means  "  pleasant,"  and  she  replied, 
"Don't  call  me  Naomi,  call  me  Mara  —  which 
means  bitter  —  for  the  Almighty  has  dealt  very 
bitterly  with  me ;  I  went  out  full,  and  Jehovah 
has  brought  me  home  again  empty." 

So  the  two  widows,  Naomi  and  Ruth,  settled 
down  at  Bethlehem,  but  they  were  very  poor  and 
lonely. 

They  had  come  just  when  the  farmers  were 
beginning  to  cut  their  barley ;  and  at  harvest  time 
the  poor  people  were  allowed  to  go  into  the  fields 
and  gather  up  the  loose  ears  that  were  dropped  by 
the  reapers ;  and  Ruth  went  to  glean  to  get  a  little 
food  for  Naomi  and  herself.  And  by  chance  she 


RUTH  93 

went  into  the  field  of  a  very  rich  man  namecLBoaz, 
who  was  a  relation  of  Elimelech,  Naomi's  dead 
husband.  And  Boaz  came  to  see  how  the  work 
was  getting  on. 

He  said  to  the  reapers,  "  Jehovah  be  with 
you." 

They  answered  him,  "Jehovah  bless  you,'-  just 
as  we  should  say,  "  Good  morning." 

He  saw  Ruth  gleaning,  and  asked  who  she  was ; 
and  they  told  him  that  she  was  Naomi's  Moabite 
daughter-in-law.  Then  Boaz  called  her  to  him, 
and  said  she  might  glean  in  his  fields  all  through 
the  harvest,  and  must  not  go  anywhere  else. 

"  For,"  said  he,  "  I  have  heard  all  about  your 
goodness  to  your  mother-in-law  Naomi.  May 
Jehovah  recompense  you,  and  may  you  be  fully 
rewarded  by  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  under 
whose  wings  you  have  come  to  take  refuge." 

At  meal-time,  Boaz  made  her  sit  down  with  the 
reapers,  and  gave  her  food  and  drink,  and  she 
ate  all  she  could,  and  still  she  had  some  left.  And 
he  bade  the  reapers  leave  whole  handfuls  of  ears 
on  purpose  for  Ruth,  so  that  in  the  evening  she 
had  a  great  bundle ;  and  she  beat  out  the  corn, 
and  took  it  to  Naomi,  with  what  she  had  left  of 
the  food  Boaz  had  given  her.  And  she  told  Naomi 
that  she  had  been  gleaning  in  the  fields  of  a  man 
named  Boaz,  and  that  he  had  been  very  kind  to 
her,  and  had  said,  "  You  must  keep  with  my  young 
men  till  my  harvest  is  quite  finished." 


94  THE   JUDGES,    EUTH,    AND    SAMUEL 

Naomi  said,  "  Yes,  my  daughter,  you  had  better 
keep  with  his  maidens,  and  not  let  them  see  you  in 
anybody  else's  fields." 

So  Ruth  kept  fast  by  the  maidens  of  Boaz,  and 
gleaned  with  them,  all  through  the  barley  harvest 
and  the  wheat  harvest ;  and  every  evening  she  took 
her  gleanings  home  to  Naomi. 

Now  there  was  a  custom  in  Israel  that,  when  a 
man  died,  his  widow  had  a  right  to  ask  his  nearest 
relation  to  marry  her,  and  he  had  her  dead  hus- 
band's land ;  but  if  they  had  a  son,  then  the  land 
went  to  him.  So,  after  the  harvest,  Naomi  said  to 
Ruth,  "  It  is  time  for  me  to  find  you  another  husband. 
Go  and  tell  Boaz  that  he  is  your  near  relation." 

Ruth  did  as  Naomi  told  her,  and  Boaz  was  de- 
lighted that  she  had  chosen  him  for  her  husband 
instead  of  some  young  man.  But  he  told  her  that 
there  was  a  man  more  closely  related  to  her  husband 
than  he  was,  and  that  this  nearer  relation  must  iirst 
be  consulted. 

In  Eastern  towns  people  gather  to  talk  and  do 
business  in  the  open  space  of  the  gate.  Next  morn- 
ing Boaz  went  and  sat  down  by  the  gate,  and  the 
other  near  relation  came  by,  and  Boaz  made  him 
sit  down  too.  Then  he  got  ten  elders,  or  chief  men, 
to  sit  with  them,  and  they  were  ready  to  do  business 
in  a  proper  legal  way.  Boaz  told  the  near  relation 
that  there  was  a  field  of  Elimelech's  that  he  had  a 
right  to  buy  back  from  a  stranger  who  held  it,  and 
the  near  relation  said  he  would  buy  the  field. 


RUTH  95 

"  But,"  said  Boaz,  "  if  you  take  the  field,  you 
must  marry  Ruth." 

But  the  near  relation  replied  that  it  would  be 
very  inconvenient  for  him  to  marry  Ruth.  Perhaps 
he  had  wives  who  would  have  objected.  "  Do  you," 
said  he  to  Boaz,  "  do  you  take  the  field  and  marry 
Ruth." 

And,  according  to  ancient  custom,  he  took  off  his 
shoe  and  passed  it  to  Boaz  as  a  sign  that  he  gave 
up  his  rights  to  him.  Then  it  was  formally  settled 
before  the  ten  elders  and  all  the  people  that  Boaz 
was  to  marry  Ruth.  And  in  due  time  they  were 
married,  and  had  a  little  son,  and  Naomi  nursed  it. 
This  little  son  was  Obed,  the  grandfather  of  David, 
from  whom  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  descended. 


CHAPTER  V 

HANNAH  AND   SAMUEL 

THIS  story,  too,  is  not  out  of  the  Book  of  Judges, 
but  out  of  the  Book  of  Samuel,  which  tells  us  how 
the  Israelites  left  off  having  judges  and  began  to 
have  kings.  The  first  two  stories  about  Samuel 
are  also  about  a  judge  named  Eli,  who  was  priest 
of  the  "  house  "  or  temple  of  Jehovah  at  Shiloh. 

There  was  a  man  named  Elkanah,  living  not  very 
far  from  Shiloh,  amongst  the  hills  of  Ephraim,  in 
the  middle  of  Palestine.  He  had  two  wives,  Han- 
nah and  Peninnah.  Peninnah  had  children,  but 
Hannah  had  none.  Once  every  year  they  all  went 
up  to  the  temple  at  Shiloh  to  worship  and  offer  a 
sacrifice  to  Jehovah.  Now,  when  a  sheep  or  an  ox 
was  killed  for  an  ordinary  sacrifice,  part  was  burnt 
on  the  altar,  part  was  given  to  the  priest,  but  the 
greater  part  was  eaten  by  the  man  who  offered  the 
sacrifice,  and  his  friends.  Such  a  sacrifice  meant  a 
feast,  or,  as  we  should  say,  a  great  dinner  party. 
These  yearly  sacrifices  were  very  special  occasions 
for  Elkanah's  family,  something  like  our  Christmas 
dinners.  Elkanah  always  helped  Peninnah  and  her 
children  very  freely,  but  he  gave  Hannah  twice  as 
much  as  any  one  of  them,  because  he  loved  her 

96 


HANNAH   AND   SAMUEL  97 

dearly.  But  Peninnah  was  jealous  of  Hannah,  and 
kept  on  making  very  disagreeable  remarks  about 
her  having  no  children,  till  Hannah  cried,  and  could 
not  eat  her  dinner.  So  every  year  the  great  sacri- 
fice was  spoilt  for  all  the  family  by  Peninnah's  evil 
temper. 

One  year  Peninnah  was  as  nasty  as  usual,  and 
Hannah  cried,  and  Elkanah  tried  in  vain  to  com- 
fort her.  But,  after  they  had  finished,  she  went  to 
the  temple  and  prayed  and  wept  bitterly.  In  her 
prayer  she  promised  that,  if  God  would  give  her  a 
son,  she  would  give  him  to  Jehovah  all  his  life. 

While  Hannah  prayed,  the  priest  Eli  was  watch- 
ing her  ;  he  saw  her  lips  move,  but  he  could  not 
hear  anything,  and  he  thought  she  was  drunk,  and 
reproved  her  sharply  for  coming  to  the  temple  in 
such  a  state.  But  she  told  him  she  was  not  drunk, 
but  only  in  great  trouble. 

And  he"  said,  "  Go  in  peace  ;  may  the  •  God  of 
Israel  give  you  what  you  have  asked  for." 

Then  she  was  greatly  comforted,  and  went  and 
took  food,  and  left  off  looking  sad.  In  time  God 
gave  her  a  son,  and  she  named  him  Samuel ;  and 
when  he  was  old  enough,  but  still  quite  a  little  boy, 
Elkanah  and  Hannah  went  to  Shiloh,  and  took  Sam- 
uel to  Eli.  Then  Hannah  told  Eli  that  she  was  the 
woman  he  had  seen  praying,  and  the  little  boy  was 
the  son  for  whom  she  had  prayed.  And  because 
he  was  God's  gift  to  her,  she  wished  to  give  him  to 
God,  to  be  a  servant  in  the  temple. 


98  THE  JUDGES,   RUTH,   AND   SAMUEL 

So  Elkanah  and  Hannah  went  home,  and  Samuel 
stayed  behind  to  help  Eli.  But  his  father  and 
mother  came  to  see  him  every  year  when  they  came 
up  for  the  sacrifice,  and  Hannah  always  brought 
him  a  new  cloak.  And  God  gave  Hannali  three 
sons  and  two  daughters  besides  Samuel. 


CHAPTER   VI 

ELI   AND   SAMUEL 

As  the  years  went  on,  and  Samuel  grew  to  be  a 
man,  Eli  got  very  old  and  feeble,  and  had  to  leave 
the  care  of  the  temple  to  his  son's,  Hophni  and 

Phinehas.      They  were   bad   men,    and   took   more 

J 

than  their  proper  share  of  the  sheep  and  oxen  which 
men  sacrificed  to  Jehovah,  and  did  many  other 
wicked  things,  so  that  the  temple  got  a  bad  name, 
and  the  people  did  not  care  to  come  to  worship 
Jehovah.  Eli  scolded  his  sons,  but  they  did  not 
heed  him. 

Now  Samuel  used  to  sleep  where  the  Ark  was, 
in  the  temple,  to  watch  over  the  Ark.  One  night 
Eli  had  gone  to  bed,  and  Samuel  lain  down  to 
sleep ;  but  the  temple  lamp  had  not  yet  gone  out, 
and  Samuel  heard  a  voice  say  "Samuel!  "  And  he 
thought  it  was  Eli  calling  him,  and  he  answered, 
"Here  am  I." 

And  he  ran  to  Eli,  and  said,  "  Here  am  I ;  you 
called  me." 

But  Eli  said,  "No,  I  did  not  call;  lie  down 
again." 

But,  when  he  had  lain  down,  he  heard  the  voice 
again,  "Samuel!"  And  again  he  ran  to  Eli,  and 

99 


100  THE   JUDGES,    RUTH,   AND   SAMUEL 

Eli  said  he  had  not  called,  and  sent  him  to  lie  down 
again. 

And  the  voice  came  for  the  third  time,  "  Sam- 
uel! "  and  again  he  ran  to  Eli ;  but  now  Eli  under- 
stood that  Jehovah  was  calling  the  lad. 

And  he  said  to  him,  "  Go  and  lie  down,  and  if  He 
calls  you,  say,  c  Speak,  O  Jehovah,  for  Thy  servant 
is  listening.' ' 

So  Samuel  went  and  lay  down,  and  Jehovah  came 
and  called,  "Samuel!  Samuel!  " 

And  Samuel  said,  "  Speak,  for  Thy  servant  is 
listening." 

Then  God  told  Samuel  to  tell  Eli  that  he  would 
punish  Eli  and  his  family  because  of  the  wickedness 
of  Hophni  and  Phinehas. 

And  Samuel  lay  till  morning,  and  opened  the 
doors  of  the  temple ;  but  he  did  not  go  to  Eli, 
because  he  was  afraid  to  tell  him  the  words  of  God. 
But  Eli  called  Samuel,  and  made  him  tell  every- 
thing ;  and,  when  he  had  heard  it  all,  he  said,  "  It 
is  Jehovah;  let  Him  do  what  seems  right  to  Him." 

Not  long  after,  the  Israelites  were  at  war  with  the 
Philistines,  and  they  wished  to  have  the  Ark  with 
them,  because  they  thought  that  if  the  Ark,  the  sign 
of  God's  presence,  was  with  the  army,  God  would 
give  them  victory.  And  Hophni  and  Phinehas  took 
the  Ark  to  the  army ;  but  in  the  next  battle  the 
Israelites  were  defeated,  Hophni  and  Phinehas  were 
killed,  and  the  Philistines  captured  the  Ark  ;  for 
sacred  chests  and  books  and  vessels  used  in  temples 


ELI   AND    SAMUEL  101 

and  churches  do  not  protect  wicked  men.  When 
the  news  came  to  Eli,  he  fell  from  a  high  seat,  where 
he  was  sitting,  and  broke  his  neck ;  and  the  wife  of 
Phinehas  died  when  she  heard  the  news. 

But  Samuel  grew  to  be  a  great  prophet,  and  all 
Israel  knew  that  he  could  teach  them  what  was 
right,  and  what  was  the  will  of  God.  And  when 
the  Philistines  came  again  to  fight  against  Israel, 
Samuel  prayed,  and  God  gave  Israel  the  victory. 
So  Samuel  judged  Israel. 


IV 

SAUL,  DAVID,  AND  SOLOMON 

CHAPTER  I 

SAUL,    THE   FIRST   KING   OF   ISEAEL 

WHEN  Samuel  got  too  old  to  judge  Israel  him- 
self, he  made  his  sons  judges.  But  they  turned  out 
badly,  like  Eli's  sons.  If  they  were  asked  to  settle 
a  dispute,  they  decided  in  favour  of  the  man  who 
gave  them  the  most  money.  The  people  were  very 
angry,  and  grew  tired  of  having  such  wicked  judges. 
They  thought  that  if  they  had  a  king,  he  would 
govern  justly,  and  they  would  be  better  off.  Just 
then,  too,  they  were  very  much  troubled  by  the 
Philistines,  the  Ammonites  and  other  enemies;  they 
hoped  that  a  king  over  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  would 
unite  them,  and  give  them  victory. 

Now,  there  was  a  tall,  handsome  young  man  of 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin.  There  was  not  a  finer  man 
than  he  in  all  Israel ;  he  stood  shoulder  high  above 
every  one  else.  His  name  was  Saul,  the  son  of 
Kish.  One  day  Kish  lost  some  asses ;  and  he  sent 
Saul  with  one  of  the  servants  to  look  for  them. 
They  went  a  long  way  without  finding  them  ;  till  at 

102 


103 


SAUL,    THE   FIRST   KING   OF   ISRAEL  105 

last  Saul  said,  "  Let  us  go  home,  lest  my  father  leave 
off  caring  for  the  asses,  and  get  anxious  about  us." 

But  the  servant  said,  "  There  is  a  man  of  God  in 
the  town  close  by,  who  has  a  great  reputation  for 
telling  people  anything  they  want  to  know.  Let  us 
go  to  him.  Perhaps  he  can  tell  us  about  the  asses." 

Saul  said,  "  But  we  have  no  present  to  give  him." 

The  servant  answered,  "I  have  a  quarter  shekel1; 
we  will  give  him  that." 

So  they  went  towards  the  town,  and  on  their  way 
they  met  some  girls  going  to  draw  water,  and  they 
asked  if  the  man  of  God  was  at  home. 

The  girls  said,  "  Yes ;  he  has  come  to  the  town 
to-day  to  be  present  at  a  great  sacrifice  and  feast 
at  the  high  place  — the  temple.  If  you  make  haste, 
you  will  catch  him  before  he  goes  to  the  high  place. 
They  don't  begin  the  feast  till  he  comes  to  bless  the 
food." 

So  Saul  and  the  servant  hurried  on,  and  met  the 
man  of  God  on  his  way  to  the  high  place. 

The  man  of  God  was  Samuel,  and  God  had  told 
him  that  He  would  send  him  a  man  of  Benjamin, 
whom  he  should  anoint  to  be  prince  over  Israel,  to 
save  the  people  from  the  Philistines.  And,  when 
Samuel  saw  the  two  strangers  coming,  he  knew  that 
Saul  was  the  man  whom  God  had  chosen  to  be  king 
over  Israel. 

But  Saul  did  not  know  Samuel,  and  he  went  up 

1 A  shekel  contained  rather  less  silver  than  there  is  in  half-a- 

crown,  but  it  would  buy  much  more  than  half -a-crown  will  buy. 
^^^?yj  in  H  A  7.-{  p  *v 
Or  THF 

UNIVERSITY 


106  SAUL,   DAVID,    AND   SOLOMON 

to  him,  and  asked  the  way  to  the  house  of  the  man 
of  God. 

Samuel  said,  "I  am  the  man  of  God;  come  and 
feast  with  us  to-day  at  the  high  place.  To-morrow 
I  will  let  you  go,  and  I  will  tell  you  all  you  want  to 
know.  Don't  trouble  about  the  asses;  they  have 
been  found;  and  soon  you  will  be  master  of  all  the 
wealth  of  Israel." 

And  Saul  wondered  what  he  meant.  Then  Sam- 
uel took  Saul  and  his  servant,  and  brought  them  into 
the  guest-chamber.  There  were  about  thirty  guests, 
the  chief  men  of  the  town;  but  Samuel  put  Saul  and 
his  servant  in  the  chief  places;  and  he  made  the 
cook  bring  Saul  a  special  portion  that  had  been  kept 
back  for  him.  So  Saul  feasted  with  Samuel,1  and 
went  to  his  house  with  him,  and  stayed  there  that 
night.  Next  morning,  they  got  up  at  daybreak,  and 
Saul  started  to  go  home.  Samuel  went  with  him  to 
see  him  on  his  way.  When  they  were  out  of  the 
city,  he  made  Saul  send  the  servant  on  in  front. 

Then  Samuel  took  a  vial  of  oil,  and  poured  it  on 
his  head,  and  told  him  that  this  was  a  sign  that 
Jehovah  had  anointed  him  to  be  king  over  Israel. 
When  they  parted,  Saul  went  home;  but  he  said 
nothing  to  his  friends  about  his  being  king.  After- 
wards God  made  the  Israelites  choose  Saul  to  be 
king;  but  some  evil  men  hated  Saul,  and  did  not 
wish  to  obey  him. 

1  The  picture  of  a  "  Dinner  Party  "  in  Palestine  to-day  will  help 
us  to  imagine  what  the  feast  was  like. 


CHAPTER   II 

SAUL'S  VICTORIES 

ABOUT  this  time  the  Ammonites,  under  their  king 
Nahash,  invaded  the  lands  of  Israel  east  of  the 
Jordan,  and  besieged  the  city  of  Jabesh-gilead. 
Soon  he  brought  the  city  into  such  straits  that  they 
sent  ambassadors  to  Nahash,  offering  to  surrender  if 
he  would  spare  their  lives. 

But  Nahash  said,  "  I  will  only  spare  you  on  con- 
dition that  you  all  have  your  right  eyes  put  out,  that 
I  may  mock  at  Israel." 

The  elders  of  Jabesh  said,  "  Make  a  truce  with  us 
for  a  week,  that  we  may  send  messengers  through 
all  Israel  for  help.  If  no  help  comes,  we  will  sur- 
render to  you  on  your  own  terms." 

The  messengers  came  to  Gibeah,  where  Saul  lived. 
Saul  was  away  ploughing  in  the  fields,  but  they  told 
their  story  to  the  people,  and  the  people  broke  out 
into  loud  cries  of  grief  and  anger.  As  Saul  came 
home  from  the  fields  with  his  oxen,  he  heard  their 
outcry,  and  asked  what  the  noise  was  about.  They 
told  him.  And  the  spirit  of  God  came  mightily 
upon  Saul  when  he  heard  of  the  shameful  cruelty  of 
Nahash,  and  he  burned  with  fierce  anger.  He  took 
a  yoke  of  oxen  and  cut  them  in  pieces,  and  sent 
messengers  with  the  pieces  to  all  parts  of  Israel, 

107 


108  SAUL,   DAVID,    AND   SOLOMON 

saying,  "If  any  man  does  not  come  to  help  Saul 
rescue  Jabesh-gilead,  his  oxen  shall  be  cut  to 
pieces." 

So  Saul  gathered  a  great  army,  and  sent  back  the 
messengers  from  Jabesh-gilead  to  tell  their  friends 
that  help  would  come  before  the  sun  was  hot  next 
day.  The  men  of  Jabesh  rejoiced  greatly  over  the 
good  news;  and,  to  put  Nahash  off  his  guard,  they 
sent  out  a  message  to  him  that  next  day  they  would 
surrender,  and  he  should  do  with  them  as  he  pleased. 

But  next  day  Saul  came  with  his  army  very  early 
in  the  morning,  and  took  the  Ammonites  by  sur- 
prise, and  defeated  them  with  great  slaughter. 
They  were  so  scattered  that  there  were  not  two  left 
together.  So  Jabesh-gilead  was  delivered;  and  now 
Saul  was  most  popular,  and  the  people  wished  to  kill 
those  who  objected  to  his  being  king. 

But  Saul  said,  "  No  one  shall  be  put  to  death  to- 
day, for  to-day  Jehovah  has  given  victory  to  Israel." 

Then  they  celebrated  their  victory  and  the  acces- 
sion of  their  new  king  by  great  sacrifices  and  feasts 
at  Gilgal. 


CHAPTER   III 

DAVID,   SAUL'S  MINSTREL  AND   ARMOUR-BEARER 

THE  Book  of  Samuel  tells  us  two  quite  different 
stories  about  the  way  in  which  David  and  Saul 
first  met.  I  cannot  explain  to  you  how  these 
stories  fit  into  one  another,  but  I  will  tell  you 
them  separately,  one  in  this  chapter,  and  one  in 
the  next. 

After  Saul  became  king,  he  and  his  brave  son 
Jonathan  gained  many  victories  over  the  Philistines 
and  their  other  enemies,  and  did  very  much  to  make 
the  separate  Israelite  tribes  into  a  strong,  united 
people.  But  sometimes  Saul  did4  evil,  and  sinned 
against  God. 

Now  comes  our  first  story.  The  spirit  of  Jeho- 
vah had  left  Saul,  and  Jehovah  allowed  an  evil 
spirit  to  trouble  him.  He  was  gloomy,  irritable, 
almost  mad.  His  servants  begged  that  they  might 
find  him  a  clever  minstrel,  who  might  play  upon  the 
harp,  and  soothe  and  cheer  him,  and  put  him  in 
good  spirits.  And  Saul  said  they  might. 

One  of  them  said,  "  I  have  seen  the  son  of  Jesse 
of  Bethlehem.  He  is  a  clever  minstrel  and  a  brave 
warrior;  he  can  talk  well,  and  is  very  handsome, 
and  Jehovah  is  with  him." 

109 


110  SAUL,   DAVID,   AND   SOLOMON 

So  Saul  sent  messengers  to  Jesse,  and  said,  "  Send 
me  your  son  David." 

Then  Jesse  loaded  an  ass  with  bread  and  a  bottle 
of  wine  and  a  kid,  and  sent  them  with  David  as  a 
present  to  Saul.  When  David  came,  he  was  pre- 
sented to  Saul;  and  Saul  was  greatly  taken  with 
him,  and  made  him  his  armour-bearer.  The  king 
sent  and  asked  Jesse  that  David  might  stay  with 
him  always,  because  he  was  very  fond  of  him.  So 
David  stayed  with  Saul ;  and,  when  the  king  be- 
came gloomy  and  irritable,  David  played  upon  the 
harp,  and  Saul  was  refreshed,  and  got  bright  and 
cheerful  again,  and  the  evil  spirit  left  him. 


CHAPTER  IV 

DAVID   AND   GOLIATH 

ONCE,  when  the  Israelites  were  at  •  war  with  the 
Philistines,  King  Saul  and  his  army  were  encamped 
on  a  hill  on  one  side  of  a  valley,  and  the  Philistines 
on  the  hill  opposite.  Amongst  the  Philistines  was 
a  giant  from  Gath  named  Goliath,  about  ten  feet 
high.  He  was  clad  in  bronze  armour,  helmet,  coat 
of  mail,  and  greaves,1  and  a  small  shield  slung  behind 
his  back.  His  coat  of  mail  weighed  about  a  hun- 
dred-weight and  a  half.  His  shield-bearer  went 
before  him,  carrying  a  large  shield.  This  giant 
came  down  every  day  into  the  valley  between  the 
two  armies,  and  challenged  any  Israelite  to  meet 
him  in  single  combat,  and  decide  the  war. 

"  Choose  a  man,"  said  he,  "and  let  him  come  down 
and  fight  with  me.  If  he  kills  me,  we  Philistines 
will  be  your  servants ;  but  if  I  kill  him,  you  shall 
serve  us.  I  defy  the  armies  of  Israel  this  day ;  find 
a  man  to  fight  with  me." 

When  Saul  and  all  Israel  heard  this  challenge  of 
the  Philistine  giant,  they  were  terribly  frightened. 
Goliath  came  down  into  the  valley  morning  and 
evening  for  forty  days,  and  repeated  his  challenge, 
but  no  one  had  courage  enough  to  accept  it. 

1  Armour  for  the  feet  and  legs. 
Ill 


112  SAUL,    DAVID,   AND   SOLOMON 

Now  comes  our  second  story  of  the  meeting  of 
Saul  and  David.  There  lived  at  Bethlehem  an  old 
man  named  Jesse,  who  had  eight  sons.  The  three 
eldest  —  Eliab,  Abinadab  and'  Shammah  —  were  in 
Saul's  camp  ;  and  the  youngest,  David,  stayed  at 
home  and  looked  after  the  sheep.  One  day  Jesse 
said  to  pavid,  "  Get  ten  loaves  and  some  corn,  and 
take  them  quickly  to  the  camp  to  your  brothers  ; 
and  take  these  ten  cheeses  to  the  captain  of  their 
thousand  (or,  as  we  should  say,  the  colonel  of  their 
regiment),  and  find  out  how  they  are,  and  bring  me 
word." 

Next  morning  David  left  the  sheep  with  a  shep- 
herd, and  went  to  the  camp  with  the  food  for  his 
brothers  and  the  present  for  the  captain ;  and  he 
came  to  the  wagons  belonging  to  the  army,  just  as 
the  Israelites  and  the  Philistines  were  setting  them- 
selves in  array  of  battle  against  each  other.  David 
was  eager  to  see  the  fighting,  so  he  left  his  loaves 
and  cheeses  with  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  wagons, 
and  ran  to  the  army,  and  found  his  brothers  and 
greeted  them.  Just  then  Goliath  came  forward 
from  the  ranks  of  the  Philistines,  and  uttered  his 
usual  challenge ;  and  when  the  Israelites  saw  him, 
they  were  frightened  and  ran  away.  But  David 
asked  the  men  near  him  what  reward  would  be 
given  to  the  man  who  killed  Goliath. 

They  answered  him,  "  The  king  will  make  him  a 
rich  man,  and  he  shall  marry  the  king's  daughter." 

But  when   David's   eldest   brother,  Eliab,   heard 


DAVID   AND   GOLIATH  113 

him  talking  about  fighting  Goliath,  lie  was  very 
angry. 

"  What  did  you  come  for  ?  "  said  Eliab.  "  With 
whom  did  you  leave  those  few  sheep  in  the  wilder- 
ness? I  know  your  pride  and  the  naughtiness  of 
your  heart.  You  came  out  of  idle  curiosity  to  see 
the  battle." 

But  David  took  no  notice ;  he  went  about  asking 
people  what  reward  would  be  given  for  killing 
Goliath,  and  they  all  gave  him  the  same  answer. 
By-and-by  Saul  heard  that  there  was  a  lad  in  the 
camp  who  talked  about  fighting  the  Philistine 
giant,  and  Saul  sent  for  David. 

And  David  said  to  Saul,  "Let  no  one  be  dis- 
tressed because  of  Goliath.  I,  your  servant,  will 
go  and  fight  with  this  Philistine." 

But  Saul  said,  "You!  Fight  with  the  Philistine ! 
You  are  only  a  stripling,  and  he  has  been  fighting 
ever  since  he  was  a  boy." 

Then  David  told  Saul  that  he  had  fought  with 
lions  and  bears  that  came  to  carry  off  the  lambs 
of  his  flock,  and  had  killed  them.  And  he  was 
sure  that  Jehovah,  who  saved  him  from  the  lion 
and  the  bear,  would  help  him  to  kill  the  heathen 
Philistine,  who  defied  the  armies  of  the  living  God. 

And  Saul  said  to  David,  "  Go,  and  Jehovah 
shall  be  with  you." 

He  clothed  David  with  his  own  armour,  and 
gave  him  his  sword  ;  but  David  had  to  take  it  all 
off  again,  because  he  was  not  used  to  such  armour. 
i 


114  SAUL,   DAVID,   AND   SOLOMON 

And  he  went  to  meet  the  Philistine  with  nothing 
but  his  staff  and  a  sling,  and  five  smooth  stones 
from  the  brook  in  his  shepherd's  bag.  And  the 
Philistine  came  on,  with  his  shield-bearer  before 
him,  and  he  looked  about  for  the  enemy  he  was  to 
fight  with,  and  saw  no  one  but  a  handsome,  rosy- 
faced  lad  with  a  staff  and  a  sling,  not  even  a  man 
like  the  shepherd  in  our  picture. 

"  What !  "  said  he,  "  am  I  a  dog,  that  you  take 
a  stick  to  me  ?  " 

And  he  cursed  David  by  his  gods,  and  said, 
"Come  to  me,  and  I  will  give  your  flesh  to  the 
birds  of  prey  and  the  wild  beasts." 

But  David  said,  "You  come  to  me  with  sword 
and  spear  and  shield,  but  I  come  to  you  in  the 
name  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth,1  the  God  of  the  armies 
of  Israel." 

And  as  Goliath  came  towards  David,  David  ran 
to  meet  him,  and  put  his  hand  in  his  bag,  and 
drew  out  a  stone,  and  slang  it,  and  hit  the  Philis- 
tine in  the  forehead ;  and  the  stone  sank  into  his 
forehead,  and  he  fell  forward  upon  his  face.  Then 
David  ran,  and  stood  over  him,  and,  because  he 
had  no  sword  of  his  own,  he  took  Goliath's  sword, 
and  drew  it  out  of  its  sheath,  and  cut  off  his  head 
with  it.  When  the  Philistines  saw  that  the  cham- 
pion was  dead,  they  ran  away ;  and  the  Israelites 
arose  and  shouted,  and  pursued  them  a  long  dis- 

1  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  a  name  of  God  used  by  the  Israelites. 


115 


DAVID   AND   GOLIATH  117 

tance ;  and  when  they  came  back  from  the  pursuit, 
they  plundered  the  Philistine  camp. 

Meanwhile  Saul  had  been  asking  his  general 
Abner  whose  son  the  stripling  was.  And  Abner 
could  not  tell  him;  but  when  David  came  back 
again,  Abner  took  him  in  to  Saul  with  the  head 
of  Goliath  in  his  hand.  And  Saul  said  to  him, 
"  Whose  son  are  you,  my  lad  ?  " 

David  answered,  "I  am  the  son  of  your  servant 
Jesse  of  Bethlehem." 


CHAPTER  V 

DAVID   AND   JONATHAN 

WHEN  David  was  brought  to  Saul  with  Goliath's 
head  in  his  hand,  Saul's  son  Jonathan  was  standing 
beside  his  father.  And  Jonathan  was  greatly  drawn 
to  David,  so  that,  before  David  had  finished  speak- 
ing to  Saul,  "the  soul  of  Jonathan,"  as  the  story 
says,  "  was  knit  with  the  soul  of  David,  and  Jona- 
than loved  him  as  his  own  soul."  From  that  mo- 
ment they  were  fast  friends,  and  even  now  we  call 
two  very  great  friends  "David  and  Jonathan."  And, 
because  of  Jonathan's  great  love  for  David,  they 
made  between  them  a  covenant,  a  solemn  promise 
that  they  would  always  be  friends  and  brothers. 
And  in  token  of  this,  Jonathan  took  off  his  robes, 
with  his  sword  and  bow  and  girdle,  and  gave  them 
to  David. 

Soon  Jonathan  had  an  opportunity  of  showing 
his  friendship  to  David.  Saul  made  David  one  of 
his  generals,  and  David  was  very  successful,  and 
became  popular,  so  that  the  women  sang:  — 

"  Saul  hath  slain  his  thousands, 
But  David  his  ten  thousands." 

Then  Saul  became  jealous  of  David,  and  the  evil, 
gloomy  spirit  came  upon  him,  and  now,  when  David 

118 


DAVID    AND   JONATHAN  119 

played  to  Saul,  the  music  did  not  soothe  the  king 
but  he  threw  his  spear  at  him  twice.  Afterwards 
he  tried  in  other  ways  to  get  David  killed.  All  this 
while  David  was  fighting  bravely  for  Saul  and  for 
Israel,  and  became  more  popular  than  ever.  And 
Saul  was  even  obliged  to  let  him  marry  his  daughter 
Michal,  as  he  had  promised,  although  he  tried  to 
break  his  promise. 

At  last  Saul  told  Jonathan  and  all  his  servants 
to  kill  David.  But  Jonathan  warned  David,  and 
tried  to  reconcile  Saul  to  him.  But  after  a  while 
David  had  to  run  away  from  Saul's  court.  He 
went  to  his  own  house,  but  Saul  sent  messengers 
after  him  to  kill  him.  And  his  wife  Michal  let 
him  down  out  of  the  window,  and  he  escaped. 
Then  Michal  put  an  image  in  David's  bed,  with 
the  clothes  over  it  to  look  like  David.  When  Saul's 
messengers  came,  she  told  them  David  was  ill  in 
bed,  and  let  them  just  look  in.  Then  they  went 
back  and  told  the  king,  but  Saul  told  them  to  go 
back  and  bring  David,  bed  and  all ;  and  when  they 
came  to  carry  him  away,  they  found  there  was  noth- 
ing in  the  bed  but  the  image  and  a  pillow.  Then 
Saul  was  very  angry,  and  sent  out  men  in  all  direc- 
tions to  hunt  for  David. 

But  David  found  Jonathan,  and  begged  him  to 
try  and  pacify  the  king,  and  to  find  out  whether 
Saul  still  wished  to  kill  David.  For  Saul  was  often 
generous,  although  he  was  hot-headed  and  passion- 
ate ;  and  when  the  evil,  jealous  spirit  left  him,  he 


120  SAUL,   DAVID,    AND   SOLOMON 

loved  David  as  in  the  old  times.  Jonathan  and 
David  fixed  upon  a  place  where  they  would  meet, 
and  arranged  a  signal  by  which  David  might  know 
whether  it  was  safe  for  him  to  come  back  to  Saul. 
Then  David  went  back  to  his  hiding-place. 

Soon  after,  the  king  was  keeping  the  feast  of  the 
new  moon,  and  he  asked  why  David's  seat  was 
empty ;  and  Jonathan  made  an  excuse  for  him, 
and  said  he  had  gone  to  a  family  gathering  at 
Bethlehem.  Whereupon  Saul  broke  out  into  fierce 
abuse  of  David,  and  of  Jonathan  because  Jonathan 
was  his  friend,  and  he  threw  his  spear  at  Jonathan. 

Then  Jonathan  knew  that  it  would  not  be  safe 
for  David  to  come  back.  And  he  went  to  the  place 
where  he  had  arranged  to  meet  David,  and  took 
with  him  a  little  lad  to  carry  his  bow  and  arrows, 
as  if  he  were  going  to  practise  shooting.  They 
came  to  the  place  ;  and  David  was  hiding,  so  that 
he  could  see  and  hear  them,  but  they  could  not 
see  him.  Jonathan  told  the  lad  to  watch  where 
each  arrow  went,  and  bring  it  back.  Then  he  shot 
an  arrow  beyond  him,  and,  when  the  lad  was  look- 
ing for  it,  he  shouted  to  him,  "  Is  not  the  arrow 
beyond  you  ?  " 

These  words  were  the  signal  to  David  that  Saul 
was  still  trying  to  kill  him.  Jonathan  sent  the  boy 
away,  and  David  came  out  of  his  hiding-place ; 
and  they  kissed  each  other,  and  wept  together,  and 
they  promised  with  a  solemn  oath  to  God,  that 
David  and  his  children  would  always  be  faithful 


DAVID   AND   JONATHAN  121 

friends  to  Jonathan  and  his  children.  Then  they 
parted;  David  went  away  to  hide  himself,  and 
Jonathan  went  back  to  Saul;  and  we  do  not  read 
that  David  and  Jonathan  ever  saw  each  other 
again. 


CHAPTER   VI 

DAVID   SPARES   SAUL'S   LIFE 

SAUL  kept  on  hunting  for  David,  and  David  had 
many  hair-breadth  escapes.  He  gathered  a  band  of 
brave  men,  and  made  raids  upon  the  neighbouring 
tribes.  Once  when  Saul,  at  the  head  of  three  thou- 
sand men,  was  hunting  for  David,  David  heard  of  it, 
and  came  with  his  men  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Saul's  camp.  Saul  was  sleeping  within  a  barricade 
of  wagons  —  a  laager,  as  they  say  in  South  Africa — 
with  his  general  Abner  by  his  side,  and  his  warriors 
all  round  about  him,  and  his  spear  stuck  in  the 
ground  at  his  head.  And  David  took  one  of  his 
followers,  named  Abishai,  and  came  to  Saul's  camp 
in  the  night.  They  passed  through  the  sleeping 
warriors  till  they  came  to  where  Saul  and  Abner 
lay,  and  no  one  awoke.  Abishai  wanted  to  kill 
Saul,  but  David  would  not  let  him.  Only  they  took 
the  spear  and  pitcher  of  water  that  were  at  Saul's 
head,  and  got  away  before  any  one  awaked. 

When  David  had  got  to  the  top  of  a  hill  a  good 
way  off,  he  shouted  to  Abner,  and  to  the  people. 
He  said  to  Abner,  "  You  call  yourself  a  brave  man, 
and  you  pretend  to  guard  the  king,  and  last  night  he 
might  have  been  killed,  and  you  none  the  wiser. 

122 


123 

See,  here  is  the  king's  spear  and  his  pitcher  of 
water !  " 

Saul  knew  David's  voice,  and  said,  "  Is  this  thy 
voice,  my  son  David?" 

David  answered,  "  It  is  my  voice,  my  lord,  O 
king.  Why  do  you  try  to  hunt  me  down  ?  What 
evil  have  I  done  ?  " 

Then  said  Saul,  "  I  have  sinned.  Return  to  me, 
my  son  David  ;  for  I  will  not  try  any  more  to  harm 
you,  because  you  have  spared  my  life.  I  have  cer- 
tainly played  the  fool,  and  made  terrible  mistakes." 

But  David  knew  that  the  evil  spirit  might  come 
upon  Saul  again.  So  he  did  not  go  to  Saul,  but  sent 
back  the  spear.  And  Saul  blessed  David,  and  they 
parted. 

Not  long  afterwards  Saul  and  Jonathan  were 
killed  in  a  great  battle  against  the  Philistines. 
And  David  made  a  poem,  like  Lycidas  or  In  Memo- 
riam,  in  which  he  lamented  for  Saul  and  Jonathan, 

and  said :  — 

« 

Saul  and  Jonathan  were  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives, 
And  in  their  death  they  were  not  divided  ; 
They  were  swifter  than  eagles, 
They  were  stronger  than  lions. 

***** 
I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother  Jonathan : 
Very  pleasant  hast  thou  been  unto  me : 
Thy  love  to  me  was  wonderful, 
Passing  the  love  of  women. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DAVID   AND   THE   ARK   ON   ZION 

AFTER  Saul's  death,  the  men  of  Judah  chose 
David  to  be  their  king ;  but  Abner,  Saul's  general, 
made  Ishbaal,  Saul's  son,  king  of  the  rest  of  Israel. 
There  was  civil  war  in  Israel  between  the  followers 
of  the  two  kings,  until  Ishbaal  was  murdered  by  two 
of  his  own  officers.  Then  all  the  tribes  agreed  to 
make  David  king  of  the  whole  country,  as  God  had 
promised  him  long  ago. 

David  gained  great  victories  over  the  Philistines, 
so  that  there  was  110  longer  any  danger  of  their  con- 
quering Israel ;  and  he  besieged  and  took  the  ancient 
city  of  Jerusalem,  which  had  been  held  up  till  his 
time  by  the  Jebusites,  a  tribe  belonging  to  the  old 
inhabitants  of  Canaan.  After  these  victories  David 
felt  that  he  was  really  king,  and  he  made  Jerusalem 
his  capital,  and  built  himself  a  palace  there,  and 
married  more  wives. 

Moreover  he  wished  to  have  a  temple  of  Jehovah 
in  his  new  capital,  and  he  bethought  himself  of  the 
Ark  of  Jehovah.  For  the  Israelites  had  no  other 
sign  of  the  presence  of  Jehovah  so  sacred  as  the 
Ark ;  and  the  temple  which  had  the  Ark  was  sure 
to  be  held  in  high  honour.  We  have  no  one  thing 

124 


OF   THF 

UNIVERSITY 

or 

ON   ZION  125 

now  that  we  hold  more  sacred  than  anything  else  — 
as  the  Israelites  did  the  Ark. 

I  must  now  return  to  the  stories  about  the  Ark. 
The  last  we  heard  of  it  was  that  it  was  captured  by 
the  Philistines ;  but  the  Ark  brought  many  mis- 
fortunes upon  them,  so  that  they  were  afraid  to  keep 
it,  and  were  glad  to  send  it  back  again  to  its  own 
country.  Since  that  time  the  Ark  had  been  kept  in 
the  house  of  a  man  named  Abinadab.  But  now 
David  went  with  thirty  thousand  men  to  bring 
the  Ark  in  solemn  procession  to  Jerusalem.  They 
brought  it  out  of  the  house  of  Abinadab,  and  put  it 
on  a  new  cart  drawn  by  oxen,  and  Uzzah  and  Ahio, 
the  sons  of  Abinadab,  drove  the  cart.  David  and 
the  Israelites  walked  before  it,  playing  upon  harps 
and  timbrels,  and  castanets  and  cymbals. 

But  as  they  went,  the  oxen  stumbled,  and  Uzzah 
took  hold  of  the  Ark  to  prevent  its  being  thrown 
out  of  the  cart.  Because  Uzzah  handled  so  sacred  a 
thing  too  familiarly,  Jehovah  was  angry  with  him, 
and  he  died  suddenly.  Then  David  was  afraid  to 
take  the  Ark  into  his  new  city,  and  it  was  put  for  a 
time  into  the  house  of  a  Philistine  from  Gath,  named 
Obed-edom.  When  it  had  been  there  three  months, 
David  heard  that  Jehovah  had  blessed  Obed-edom, 
and  given  him  three  prosperous  months.  Then 
David  knew  it  would  be  safe  to  bring  the  Ark  into 
Jerusalem.  He  set  out  again  with  a  great  company 
to  fetch  the  Ark  in  solemn  procession,  with  music 
and  dancing,  with  shouting,  and  blowing  of  trum- 


126  SAUL,  .DAVID,   AND   SOLOMON 

pets.  So  they  brought  the  Ark  to  Jerusalem,  and 
put  it  into  a  tent  which  David  had  set  up  for  it. 
And  they  offered  great  sacrifices  to  Jehovah;  and 
David  feasted  all  the  people. 

But  after  a  time  David  felt  that  it  was  not  right 
that  he  should  live  in  a  palace  of  cedar  while  the 
Ark  of  Jehovah  had  nothing  but  a  tent  to  shelter 
it ;  and  he  wished  to  build  a  magnificent  temple  for 
the  Ark.  He  asked  the  prophet  Nathan  whether 
Jehovah  would  be  pleased  with  such  a  temple,  and 
Nathan  said  that  He  would.  But  Nathan  had  made 
a  mistake,  for  Jehovah  bade  him  tell  David  that 
he  should  not  build  the  temple,  but  that  David's 
family  should  always  reign  in  Jerusalem,  and  that 
his  son  should  build  the  temple. 

So  David  reigned  in  Jerusalem  in  great  glory  and 
prosperity.  He  did  not  forget  his  promise  to  Jona- 
than, but  he  found  a  lame  son  of  Jonathan's,  Merib- 
baal,  and  gave  him  the  lands  that  had  belonged  to 
Saul;  and  Meribbaal  lived  at  the  court,  and  ate  at 
the  king's  table. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

DAVID   AND   ABSALOM 

IN  spite  of  all  his  glory  and  prosperity,  David  had 
many  terrible  troubles  in  the  latter  years  of  his  reign. 
He  fell  into  grievous  sin,  for  he  used  the  royal  power 
to  Inflict  shameful  wrong  upon  one  of  his  brave  and 
faithful  soldiers,  and  to  bring  about  his  death.  The 
rebukes  of  Nathan  the  prophet  soon  made  David  feel 
that  he  had  acted  meanly  and  wickedly,  and  he  re- 
pented bitterly  of  his  sin.  Nevertheless  he  suffered 
severe  punishment. 

David  had  a  favourite  son  named  Absalom,  and 
another  son  Amnon.  The  two  brothers  quarrelled, 
and  Absalom  killed  Amnon,  and  fled  to  his  grand- 
father —  his  mother's  father  —  the  king  of  Geshur, 
in  the  north  of  Palestine.  When  he  ha^d  been  there 
three  years,  Joab,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army,  persuaded  David  to  let  Absalom  return.  But 
David  did  not  wholly  forgive  him  —  he  would  not 
see  him.  So  for  two  years  more  Absalom  was  not 
allowed  to  come  to  the  court  or  to  see  his  father,  but 
at  last  Joab  persuaded  David  to  send  for  his  son. 
Absalom  came  to  the  king,  and  bowed  himself  to  the 
ground  before  him,  and  the  king  kissed  Absalom, 
and  wholly  forgave  him. 

127 


128  SAUL,   DAVID,   AND   SOLOMON 

But  Absalom  was  not  content  —  he  wished  to  be 
king  instead  of  David.  He  was  popular  because  he 
was  handsome  ;  in  all  Israel  there  was  none  so  much 
to  be  praised  as  Absalom  for  his  beauty  ;  and  he  had 
long,  beautiful  hair.  He  set  to  work  to  make  him- 
self more  popular,  and  to  make  David  unpopular. 
He  got  a  chariot  and  horses,  and  fifty  men  to  run 
before  him.  He  would  get  up  early,  and  post  him- 
self by  the  gate  —  like  the  Cadi,  or  magistrate,  in 
our  picture  —  at  Jerusalem  to  nxeet  the  people  com- 
ing to  the  king  to  make  complaints  and  get  justice 
done  them.  When  any  one  came,  Absalom  would 
greet  him,  and  ask  his  name  and  city,  and  what  his 
business  was,  and  would  say  to  him,  "It  is  quite 
clear  that  you  are  in  the  right,  and  judgment  ought 
to  be  given  in  your  favour  ;  but  the  king  is  getting 
too  old  for  business,  and  he  has  appointed  no  one 
else  to  see  to  it.  If  only  /were  judge,  I  should  be 
ready  to  hear  everybody's  case,  and  to  do  him 
justice." 

And  when  the  man  wished  to  bow  down  to  him, 
Absalom  went  to  him,  and  raised  him  up,  and  kissed 
him.  So  Absalom  stole  the  hearts  of  all  the  men  of 
Israel. 

After  a  time  Absalom  asked  the  king's  leave  to 
go  to  Hebron  to  offer  a  sacrifice  at  the  temple  there, 
and  David  let  him  go.  Now  Absalom  has  sent  mes- 
sengers through  all  the  land,  saying,  "  As  soon  as 
you  hear  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  say,  '  Absalom 
is  king  in  Hebron.'  "  So  Absalom  went  to  Hebron, 


THE  CADI  ADMINISTERING  JUSTICE  "IN  THE  GATE" 
129 


DAVID  AND   ABSALOM  131 

and  took  with  him  two  hundred  nobles  from  Jeru- 
salem, whom  he  had  invited  to  his  sacrifice.  They 
knew  nothing  about  the  conspiracy,  but  when  they 
came  to  Hebron,  and  found  people  flocking  in  from 
all  sides  to  make  Absalom  king,  they  could  scarcely 
help  joining  with  him.  When  David  heard  of  it, 
he  fled  from  Jerusalem  with  his  friends  and  his 
body-guard  of  foreign  mercenaries,  and  after  many 
adventures  he  reached  Mahanaim  on  the  east  of 
Jordan,  and  gathered  a  great  army  round  him  ; 
and  Absalom  and  his  army  crossed  the  Jordan  to 
fight  with  David.  David  mustered  his  army,  and 
divided  it  into  three  parts  under  Joab  and  his  two 
brothers ;  and  he  wished  himself  to  lead  the  army 
to  battle.  But  his  followers  would  not  let  him,  lest 
he  should  be  killed;  they  persuaded  him  to  stop  at 
Mahanaim  while  they  went  out  to  fight.  And  the 
king  stood  by  the  gate,  and  watched  the  army  march 
out,  one  regiment  after  another.  He  commanded 
Joab  and  the  other  two  generals,  "  Deal  gently  for 
my  sake  with  the  young  man,  even  with  Absalom." 
And  all  the  people  heard  him  give  this  charge  to  the 
generals.  In  the  battle  that  followed,  David's  army 
won  a  great  victory ;  and  Absalom  was  riding  away 
upon  a  mule,  when  the  mule  went  under  the  thick 
boughs  of  a  great  oak,  and  his  head  caught  in  the 
oak,  and  he  hung  between  earth  and  heaven,  while 
the  mule  went  away  from  under  him.  One  of 
David's  soldiers  saw  him,  and  told  Joab.  And  Joab 
rebuked  the  man  for  not  killing  Absalom ;  but  the 


132  SAUL,   DAVID,    AND   SOLOMON 

man  said  that  they  had  all  heard  the  king's  command 
to  spare  his  son,  and  he  said  that  after  that  he  would 
not  have  harmed  him  for  a  thousand  pieces  of  silver. 
But  Joab  said  he  could  not  stop  to  argue  with  him. 
Joab  took  three  darts  and  went  to  the  oak  tree,  and 
thrust  them  through  Absalom,  and  Joab's  body-guard 
helped  him  to  kill  the  young  prince ;  and  they  cast 
him  into  a  great  pit  in  the  forest,  and  raised  over 
him  a  very  great  heap  of  stones.  Then  Joab  blew 
a  trumpet  to  call  back  his  army  from  pursuing  the 
rebels. 

Meanwhile,  David  sat  between  the  two  gates  of 
the  city  waiting  for  news ;  and  the  watchman  went 
up  to  the  roof  of  the  gate,  and  looked,  and  when  he 
saw  a  man  running  alone,  he  called  out  and  told  the 
king. 

The  king  said,  "If  he  is  alone  he  brings  news." 

Soon  the  watchman  saw  another  man  running 
alone,  and  told  the  king ;  and  the  king  said,  "  He 
also  will  bring  news." 

And  the  watchman  said,  "  I  think  the  running  of 
the  foremost  is  like  the  running  of  Ahimaaz,  the  son 
of  Zadok." 

"  He  is  a  good  man,"  said  the  king,  "  and  comes 
with  good  news." 

Ahimaaz  came  and  bowed  down  before  the  king, 
and  said,  "  Blessed  be  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  has 
given  you  victory  over  the  rebels." 

But  the  king  said,  "  Is  Absalom  safe  ?  " 

Ahimaaz  answered,   "When  Joab  sent  me,  your 


DAVID   AND   ABSALOM  133 

servant,  I  saw  a  great  tumult,  but  I  did  not  know 
what  it  was." 

The  king  bade  him  stand  aside.  Arid  the  second 
messenger  came  and  said,  "  Tidings  for  my  lord  the 
king ;  Jehovah  has  revenged  you  this  day  upon  all 
who  rebelled  against  you." 

But  the  king  said,  "  Is  Absalom  safe  ?  " 

And  the  messenger  answered,  "May  the  enemies 
of  my  lord  the  king,  and  all  that  rise  up  against  you 
to  do  you  hurt,  be  as  that  young  man  is." 

Then  the  king  was  much  moved,  and  went  up  to 
the  chamber  over  the  gate,  and  wept,  and  as  he 
went  -he  said,  "  O  my  son  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son 
Absalom !  Would  God  I  had  died  for  you,  O  Absa- 
lom, my  son,  my  son  ! " 

So  the  victory  that  day  was  turned  into  mourn- 
ing for  all  the  people,  for  they  heard  how  the  king 
grieved  over  his  son ;  and  they  crept  quietly  back 
into  the  town,  as  if  they  were  fugitives  instead  of  con- 
querors. But  Joab  persuaded  David  to  show  him- 
self to  the  people,  lest  they  should  be  too  discouraged. 


CHAPTER   IX 

SOLOMON 


WHEN  David  died,  he  was  succeeded  by  another 
favourite  son,  Solomon,  whom  he  had  crowned  king 
before  his  own  death.  David's  victories  had  made 
Israel  powerful  and  prosperous,  so  that  Solomon 
ruled  over  a  wide  territory,  and  possessed  great 
riches.  At  the  beginning  of  his  reign  he  went  to 
worship  God  at  the  great  high  place  or  temple  at 
Gibeon,  and  offered  a  thousand  burnt  offerings. 
And  at  night  Jehovah  appeared  to  Solomon  in  a 
dream,  and  said,  "  Ask  what  I  shall  give  you." 

Solomon  said,  "  Thou  hast  made  Thy  servant  king, 
instead  of  David  my  father ;  and  I  am  but  as  a  little 
child,  not  skilled  in  governing.  And  Thy  servant  is 
in  the  midst  of  Thy  chosen  people,  a  great  people, 
too  many  to  be  counted.  Give  Thy  servant,  there- 
fore, an  understanding  heart  to  judge  Thy  people, 
that  I  may  discern  between  good  and  evil." 

Jehovah  was  pleased  that  Solomon  had  asked  for 
wisdom,  and  said  unto  him,  "  Because  you  have  not 
asked  for  yourself  long  life  or  riches  or  the  life  of 
your  enemies,  but  have  asked  for  understanding,  that 
you  may  be  a  wise  and  just  judge,  I  have  done  as 
you  have  asked.  I  have  given  you  a  wise  and  under- 
standing heart,  and  I  have  also  given  you  the  riches 
and  honour  you  did  not  ask  for." 

134 


SOLOMON  135 

And  Solomon  awoke,  and,  behold  !  it  was  a  dream. 
And  he  came  to  Jerusalem  and  offered  sacrifices 
before  the  Ark  of  Jehovah,  and  made  a  feast  for  all 
his  servants. 

Solomon  was.  famous  for  his  wisdom  and  for  his 
many  great  buildings.  He  built  magnificent  palaces 
for  himself  and  for  his  queens,  especially  one  for 
himself  that  took  thirteen  years  to  build,  and  one 
for  Pharaoh's  daughter,  whom  he  had  married. 
And,  above  all  else,  he  spent  seven  years  in  build- 
ing the  palace  or  temple  of  Jehovah  at  Jerusalem, 
which  came  to  be  the  greatest  and,  at  last',  the  onhr 
temple  of  Jehovah. 

And  as  Solomon's  temple  was  above  all  other 
temples,  so  he  was  said  to  be  wiser  than  all  men, 
wiser  even  than  those  who  were  most  celebrated  for 
their  wisdom  —  the  Men  of  the  East  and  the  Egyp- 
tians. He  was  famous  amongst  all  the  nations  round 
about  for  his  three  thousand  proverbs  and  his  thou- 
sand and  five  songs.  He  spoke  of  trees,  from  the 
cedar  in  Lebanon  to  the  herbs,  like  hyssop,  that  grew 
on  the  wall ;  and  of  birds  and  creeping  things  and 
fishes.  And  the  kings  of  all  peoples  round  about 
heard  so  much  of  his  wisdom  that  they  sent  their 
servants  to  hear  his  wise  sayings.  And  one  queen, 
the  Queen  of  Sheba,  in  Arabia,  came  herself  to  ask 
Solomon  difficult  questions,  and  find  out  if  he  was 
as  wise  as  reports  said.  She  came  to  Jerusalem  with 
a  great  retinue,  with  camels  loaded  with  spices  and 
jewels  and  gold.  She  came  to  Solomon,  and  asked 


136  SAUL,   DAVID,   AND   SOLOMON 

him  her  difficult  questions,  and  he  was  able  to  an- 
swer them  all.  When  she  saw  how  wise  he  was, 
and  his  splendid  palace  and  luxurious  banquets  and 
crowds  of  finely  dressed  courtiers  and  servants,  and 
especially  the  flight  of  steps  by  which  he  went  up  to 
the  temple,  there  was  no  more  spirit  in  her. 

She  said  to  the  king,  "  I  did  not  believe  what  I 
heard  about  your  wise  sayings,  your  wealth  and  your 
splendour ;  but  now  I  have  seen  it  all  with  my  own 
eyes,  and,  behold,  the  half  was  not  told  me.  Your 
wisdom  and  prosperity  are  greater  than  the  reports 
of  them." 

And  she  gave  the  king  gold  and  spices  and  jewels. 
Such  an  abundance  of  spices  was  never  again  seen 
in  Jerusalem.  And  Solomon  gave  the  Queen  of 
Sheba  all  that  she  asked  for,  and  many  presents 
besides ;  and  she  and  her  servants  went  back  to 
their  own  land. 

But,  in  spite  of  his  wisdom  and  prosperity,  Solo- 
mon fell  into  many  grievous  sins.  In  order  to  build 
his  palaces,  he  oppressed  the  people  by  making  them 
work  for  nothing,  so  that  they  became  discontented; 
and  when  he  died,  and  his  son  Rehoboam  refused 
to  promise  to  reign  better,  almost  all  Israel,  ten 
tribes,  revolted  from  Rehoboam,  and  chose  another 
king,  Jeroboam.  From  that  time  there  were  kings 
of  Israel  ruling  over  the  ten-  northern  tribes ;  but 
the  descendants  of  David  still  ruled  in  Jerusalem, 
over  Judah  and  Benjamin. 


V 

ELIJAH  AND  ELISHA 

i 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   FAMINE 

SOME  time  after  this,  there  arose  a  great  king  in 
Israel,  named  Omri ;  and,  like  David  and  Solomon, 
he  was  friendly  with  the  Phosiiicians  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon  ;  and  his  son  Ahab,  who  succeeded  him,  mar- 
ried Jezebela__the  daughter  of  the  king  of  Sidon.  , 
Omri  and  Ahab  waged  long  wars  with  the  Syrians 
of  Damascus,  'and  gained  victories  over  them  and 
other  enemies,  so  that  they  made  Israel  strong.  But 
Ahab  oppressed  his  own  people,  and  encouraged  the 
worship  of  false  gods,  especially  of  Baal,  the  god  of 
the  Phoenicians. 

The  stories  about  Elijah  and  Elisha  tell  us  how 
Ahab  and  his  family  were  punished.  The  prophet 
Elijah,  from  Gilead,  came  to  Ahab  and  said,  "As 
Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  liveth,  before  whom  I 
stand,  there  shall  be  neither  dew  nor  rain  but  accord- 
ing to  my  word."  Then  he  fled,  lest  Ahab  should 
kill  him,  and  hid  himself  by  a  brook  in  the  land  east 
of  Jordan ;  ravens  brought  him  bread  and  meat, 

137 


138  '  ELIJAH   AND    ELISHA 

and  he  drank  of  the  brook.  But  the  brook  dried 
up,  and  he  went  to  Zarephath,  a  city  belonging  to 
Sidon ;  and,  when  he  came  to  the  gate  of  the  city,  he 
saw  a  widow  gathering  sticks,  and  he  called  to  her, 
and  said,  "Fetch  me,  I  pray  you,  a  little  water  to 
drink." 

As  she  was  going  to  fetch  it,  he  called  to  her 
again,  and  said,  "  Bring  me,  I  pray  you,  a  morsel  of 
bread." 

But  she  said,  "As  Jehovah  your  God  liveth,  I 
have  no  bread,  only  a  handful  of  meal  in  the  barrel 
and  a  little  oil  in  the  jar  ;  and  I  am  gathering  two 
sticks,  that  I  may  go  in  and  bake  a  cake  for  me  and 
my  son,  that  we  may  eat  it  and  die." 

Nevertheless  Elijah  said,  "  Do  not  be  afraid  that 
you  will  starve ;  go  and  do  as  you  have  said  ;  but 
make  me  a  little  cake  first,  and  bring  it  out  to  me, 
and  then  make  for  yourself  and  your  son.  For  thus 
saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  The  barrel  of  meal 
shall  not  waste,  neither  shall  the  jar  of  oil  fail,  until 
Jehovah  sends  rain  upon  the  earth." 

She  went  and  did  as  Elijah  bade  her,  and  she  and 
he  and  her  household  lived  many  days  on  the  meal 
and  the  oil.  But  one  day  her  son  fell  ill,  and  got 
worse  till  there  was  no  breath  left  in  him  ;  but  Elijah 
prayed  to  God,  and  the  boy  recovered;  and  his 
mother  believed  that  Elijah  was  a  prophet,  and  could 
teach  her  the  will  of  God. 


V 

CHAPTER   II 

THE   RAIN 

FOR  three  years  there  was  no  rain  in  Israel,  so 
that  there  was  a  terrible  famine.  Then  God  told 
Elijah  to  go  to  Ahab,  and  tell  the  king  that  there 
would  be  rain. 

When  Ahab  saw  Elijah,  he  said,  "  Is  it  you,  you 
troubler  of  Israel?" 

Elijah  answered,  "  It  is  not  I,  but  you  and  your 
father's  house  that  have  troubled  Israel,  for  you 
have  disobeyed  the  commands  of  Jehovah,  and  wor- 
shipped the  Baals.  Send  and  gather  all  Israel  to 
Mount  Car  in  el,  with  the  four  hundred  and  fifty 
prophets  of  Baal  that  eat  at  Jezebel's  table." 

So  Ahab  sent  and  gathered  all  Israel  and  the 
prophets  of  Baal  to  Mount  Carmel ;  and  Elijah  came 
and  said  to  them,  "  How  long  will  you  halt  between 
two  opinions  ?  If  Jehovah  be  God,  follow  Him ; 
but  if  Baal  be  God,  follow  him." 

For  the  people  thought  that  Jehovah  would  not 
object  to  their  worshipping  other  gods,  if  they  wor- 
shipped him  as  well.  And  when  Elijah  spoke  to  the 
people,  they  answered  him  not  a  word. 

Then  Elijah  proposed  that  the  prophets  of  Baal 
should  sacrifice  a  bullock  to  Baal,  and  he  should 
sacrifice  a  bullock  to  Jehovah ;  and  whichever  of  the 

139 


140  ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA 

two,  Jehovah  or  Baal,  sent  fire  to  burn  up  the  sacri- 
fice offered  to  him,  should  be  the  God  of  Israel. 
And  the  people  agreed. 

Then  the  prophets  of  Baal  offered  their  bullock, 
and  called  on  the  name  of  Baal  from  morning  till 
noon  ;  but  there  was  no  voice  nor  any  that  answered. 
And  they  leaped  about  their  altar. 

And  Elijah  mocked  them,  and  said,  "  Shout 
louder;  he  is  a  god;  perhaps  he  is  in  a  brown 
study,  or  on  a  journey,  or  perhaps  he  is  asleep,  and 
must  be  awaked." 

Then  they  shouted  louder  than  ever,  and  cut 
themselves  with  knives  and  lancets,  as  men  were 
wont  to  do  in  worshipping  Baal,  till  the  blood 
gushed  out  upon  them.  But  there  was  no  voice 
and  no  answer,  and  no  god  took  any  notice  of 
them. 

Then  Elijah  offered  his  sacrifice,  and  prayed  that 
Jehovah  would  let  the  people  know  that  He  was 
the  God  of  Israel,  and  that  Elijah  was  His  prophet. 
At  his  prayer  the  fire  of  Jehovah  fell  and  burnt  up 
the  bullock  and  the  wood  and  the  stones  of  the  altar. 
When  all  the  people  saw^it  they  fell  on  their  faces, 
and  said,  "  Jehovah  is  God  !  Jehovah  is  God  !  " 

Then  Elijah  had  all  the  prophets  of  Baal  killed. 
Afterwards  he  told  Ahab  that  there  was  the  sound 
of  abundance  of  rain.  And  Elijah  went  up  to  the 
top  of  Carmel,  and  bowed  himself  to  the  earth  in 
prayer.  After  a  while,  he  told  his  servant  to  go 
and  look  out  over  the  sea,  but  the  servant  came 


THE   RAIN  141 

back  and  said  he  could  see  nothing.  Seven  times 
Elijah  sent  him  to  look,  and  the  seventh  time  the 
servant  came  back  and  said,  "  There  is  a  little  cloud 
no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand  coming  up  out  of  the 
sea." 

Then  Elijah  sent  him  to  tell  Ahab  to  have  his 
chariot  got  ready,  and  to  make  haste  home,  lest 
he  should  be  stopped  by  the  rain.  Soon  the  sky 
grew  black  with  clouds  and  wind,  and  the  rain 
came  down  in  torrents.  And  Ahab  drove  home 
to  his  palace  at  Jezreel  as  fast  as  he  could.  And 
the  hand  of  Jehovah  was  on  Elijah,  and  he  girded 
up  his  robe,  and  ran  before  Ahab's  chariot  to  the 
gate  of  Jezreel. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   STILL   SMALL   VOICE. 

WHEN  Ahab  got  home,  he  told  Jezebel  all  that 
Elijah  had  done,  and  how  he  had  killed  all  her 
prophets.  Then  Jezebel  sent  a  messenger  to  Elijah, 
saying,  u  So  let  the  gods  do  to  me,  and  more  also,  if 
I  make  not  your  life  as  the  life  of  one  of  them  by 
to-morrow  ajbout  this  time." 

Then  Elijah  was  afraid,  and  fled  for  his  life,  and 
came  to  the  southernmost  part  of  Judah,  to  Beer- 
sheba,  and  left  his  servant  there.  But  he  himself 
went  on  further  south,  a  day's  journey  into  the  wil- 
derness, and  found  a  juniper  tree,  and  sat  down  to 
rest  in  its  shade.  And  he  prayed  that  he  might  die, 
and  said,  "  I  have  borne  enough  ;  now,  O  Jehovah, 
take  away  my  life,  for  I  am  not  better  than  my 
fathers." 

Then  he  lay  down  and  went  to  sleep  under  the 
juniper  tree,  and  while  he  was  asleep  an  angel 
touched  him,  and  said,  "Arise  and  eat." 

Elijah  got  up  and  looked  about,  and  saw  beside 
him  a  cake  of  bread  and  a  pitcher  of  water  ;  and 
he  ate  and  drank,  and  lay  him  down  again.  But 
the  angel  of  Jehovah  came  again  the  second  time, 
and  touched  him,  and  said,  "  Arise  and  eat,  because 
the  journey  is  too  long  for  you." 

142 


THE   STILL   SMALL   VOICE  143 

Then  Elijah  got  up  again,  and  ate  and  drank,  and 
went  in  the  strength  of  that  food  to  the  sacred 
mountain  of  Horeb  ;  and  there  he  found  a  cave,  and 
lodged  in  it. 

Then  Jehovah  passed  by.  Before  Him,  a  great 
and  strong  wind  rent  the  mountains  and  broke  the 
rocks  in  pieces,  but  Jehovah  was  not  in  the  wind  ; 
and  after  the  wind  there  was  an  earthquake,  but 
Jehovah  was  not  in  the  earthquake  ;  and  after  the 
earthquake  there  was  a  fire,  but  Jehovah  was  not  in 
the  fire.  And  after  the  fire  there  was  a  still  small 
voice.  When  Elijah  heard  the  voice,  he  wrapped 
his  face  in  his  mantle,  and  went  out,  and  stood  at 
the  entrance  of  the  cave. 

And  there  came  a  voice  unto  him,  and  said, 
"What  are  you  doing  here,  Elijah?" 

And  he  said,  "I  have  been  very  zealous  for 
Jehovah  Sabaoth ;  but  the  Israelites  have  been 
rebellious  and  disobedient,  they  have  thrown  down 
Thine  altars,  and  killed  Thy  prophets,  and  I,  even  I 
only,  am  left;  and  they  seek  my  life  to  take  it  away." 

Elijah  felt  that  he  had  failed  altogether  in  his 
work  for  God,  and  was  helpless  and  useless.  But 
Jehovah's  answer  showed  that  He  had  still  work  for 
Elijah  to  do.  He  bade  him  anoint  a  Syrian  general 
named  Hazael  to  be  king  of  Syria  ;  and  an  Israelite 
general,  Jehu,  the  son  of  Nimshi,  to  be  king  over 
Israel  ;  and  a  certain  Elisha,  the  son  of  Shaphat,  to 
succeed  himself  as  prophet.  Hazael  and  Jehu  would 
punish  the  sins  of  Israel  against  its  God. 


144  ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA 

"  Yet,"  said  Jehovah,  "  I  will  leave  me  seven 
thousand  in  Israel,  all  the  knees  which  have  not 
bowed  to  Baal,  and  every  mouth  which  has  not 
kissed  him." 

So  that  Elijah  was  not  the  only  faithful  Israelite, 
and  his  "  I,  even  I  only,"  was  altogether  a  mistake. 

Then  Elijah  left  the  cave  and  the  wilderness,  and 
went  to  look  for  Elisha,  and  found  him  ploughing 
with  twelve  yoke  of  oxen  before  him,  and  he  with 
the  twelfth.  As  Elijah  passed  close  by,  he  threw 
his  mantle  upon  Elisha.  And  he  left  the  oxen,  and 
ran  after  Elijah,  and  said,  "  Let  me,  I  pray  you,  kiss 
my  father  and  mother,  and  then  I  will  follow  you." 

And  he  left  Elijah,  and  took  a  yoke  of  oxen,  and 
killed  them,  and  boiled  their  flesh  with  the  wood 
of  the  plough  and  yoke,  and  feasted  his  servants. 
Then  he  set  out  and  went  after  Elijah,  and  became 
his  disciple  and  attendant. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THERE  was  a  man  at  Jezreel  named  Naboth,  who 
had  a  vineyard  close  to  Ahab's  palace.  Some  time 
after  Elijah's  flight  to  the  wilderness,  Ahab  sent  for 
Naboth,  and  said  to  him,  "•  Give  me  your  vineyard 
for  a  kitchen  garden,  because  it  is  near  my  palace  ; 
and  I  will  either  give  you  a  better  vineyard  for  it, 
or  pay  you  its  value  in  money." 

But  Naboth  answered,  "  God  forbid  that  I  should 
give  you  the  land  I  have  inherited  from  my  fathers." 
For  in  ancient  Israel  each  family  held  its  land  as  a 
sacred  possession,  and  it  was  a  sin  for  a  man  to  sell 
the  family  estate  and  leave  his  children  landless. 

But,  because  Naboth  would  not  sell  his  vineyard, 
Ahab  went  home  heavy  and  displeased,  and  lay 
down  on  his  bed,  turned  his  face  to  the  wall,  and 
would  take  no  food.  Jezebel  his  wife  came  to  see 
what  was  the  matter  with  him,  and  he  told  her  all 
about  Naboth  and  the  vineyard.  Then  she  said, 
"  Are  you  really  king  of  Israel,  and  cannot  have  a 
vineyard  when  you  have  set  your  heart  on  it  ?  Get 
up  and  take  food,  and  be  cheerful.  I  will  give  you 
Naboth' s  vineyard." 

So  she  wrote  a  letter  in  Ahab's  name,  and  sealed 
L  145 


146  ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA 

it  with  his  seal,  and  sent  it  to  the  elders,  or  chief 
men,  of  the  city  where  Naboth  lived.  And  when 
the  elders  got  the  letter,  they  opened  it  and  read  it, 
and  did  as  Jezebel  had  written.  They  proclaimed 
a  fast,  as  if  some  great  sin  had  been  committed, 
which  would  bring  trouble  on  the  city.  They  took 
Naboth,  and  put  him  in  a  conspicuous  place  before 
all  the  people ;  and  they  bribed  two  scoundrels  to 
bear  false  witness  against  Naboth.  And  the  two 
men  came  in  and  sat  down  before  Naboth,  and  ac- 
cused him  before  all  the  people  of  cursing  God  and 
the  king. 

Then  Naboth  was  condemned,  and  carried  out  of 
the  city,  and  stoned  to  death ;  and  the  elders  wrote 
and  told  Jezebel  that  Naboth  was  dead.  When 
Jezebel  got  the  letter,  she  told  Ahab  that  Naboth 
was  dead,  and  he  could  take  the  vineyard ;  and 
Ahab  went  down  to  take  possession  of  it.  But 
when  he  reached  the  vineyard,  he  found  Elijah 
waiting  for  him. 

And  he  said  to  the  prophet,  "  Have  you  found 
me,  O  mine  enemy  ?  " 

Elijah  answered,  "  I  have  found  you,  because  you 
have  sold  yourself  to  do  evil  in  the  sight  of  Jeho- 
vah. God  will  destroy  all  your  family,  so  that  they 
shall  no  longer  reign  over  Israel ;  and  the  dogs  shall 
eat  Jezebel  by  the  walls  of  Jezreel." 

Then  Ahab  was  much  afraid,  and  lamented,  and 
tore  his  clothes,  and  put  on  sackcloth,  and  fasted. 
And  the  word  of  Jehovah  came  to  Elijah,  "  Because 


NABOTH'S  VINEYAED  147 

Ahab  humbles  himself  before  Me,  I  will  not  destroy 
his  family  till  after  he  is  dead." 

Not  long  after,  Ahab  was  killed  in  battle,  fight- 
ing against  the  Syrians,  and  his  son  Ahaziah  became 
king  in  his  stead. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   WAR   WITH  MOAB 

. 

NOT  long  after  Ahab's  death,  Elijah  was  taken  up 
to  heaven,  and  Eiistrarsncceeded  him  as  the  prophet 
of  Jehovah.  About  the  same  time,  the  new  king 
Ahaziah  died,  and  his  brother  Jehoram  became  king 
of  Israel.  Now,  in  the  days  of  Omri  and  Ahab, 
Moab  had  been  subject  to  Israel ;  and  the  king  of 
Moab  in  Ahab's  time  was  Mesha,  and  he  paid  Ahab 
as  tribute  a  hundred  thousand  lambs  and  the  wool 
of  a  hundred  thousand  rams.  But  after  Ahab's 
death,  Mesha  refused  to  be  subject  to  Israel,  and 
pay  tribute. 

Then  Jehoram,  king  of  Israel,  gathered  a  great 
army,  and  the  kings  of  Judah  and  Edom  came  to 
help  him  against  Moab.  After  marching  for  seven 
days,  the  armies  found  themselves  in  a  desert  where 
there  was  no  water,  and  they  seemed  likely  to  die 
of  thirst. 

And  the  king  of  Judah  said,  "  Is  there  not  here 
a  prophet  of  Jehovah,  by  whom  we  may  ask  counsel 
of  him?" 

One  of  the  Israelites  answered,  "  Elisha  the  son  of 
Shaphat  is  here,  who  poured  water  on  the  hands  of 
Elijah."1 

1  i.e.   Was  his  attendant. 
148 


THE   WAR   WITH   MOAB  149 

So  the  three  kings  went  to  ask  advice  of  Elisha, 
and  he  bade  them  bring  him  a  minstrel ;  and,  when 
the  minstrel  played,  the  hand  of  Jehovah  came  upon 
him,  and  he  said,  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Make  this 
valley  full  of  trenches.  Ye  shall  see  neither  wind 
nor  rain,  yet  the  valley  shall  be  filled  with  water. 
And  Jehovah  will  give  you  victory  over  the 
Moabites." 

So  they  dug  the  trenches,  and  next  morning  they 
were  full  of  water.  Now,  when  the  Moabites  heard 
that  the  kings  were  coming  to  fight  against  them, 
all  the  fighting  men  gathered  together  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Moab  to  meet  the  enemy.  And  the  same 
morning  they  looked  across  to  the  valley,  and  the 
sun  shone  upon  the  trenches,  and  made  the  water 
as  red  as  blood.  And  the  Moabites  said,  "  This  is 
blood ;  the  three  kings  and  their  armies  have  quar- 
relled, and  fought  amongst  themselves,  and  slaugh- 
tered each  other.  Now  therefore,  Moab,  to  the  spoil." 

Down  they  rushed  in  a  disorderly  crowd  to  plun- 
der the  enemies'  camps.  But,  when  they  came  to 
the  camp  of  Israel,  the  Israelites  rose  up  against 
them,  and  routed  them.  Then  the  three  kings 
marched  into  Moab,  and  filled  up  the  wells,  and 
cut  down  the  trees,  and  destroyed  the  towns,  till 
they  came  to  a  great  Moabite  city,  Kir-hareseth, 
and  besieged  it,  and  had  nearly  taken  it.  But  the 
king  of  Moab  took  seven  hundred  men,  and  made 
a  sortie,  and  tried  to  break  through  to  the  king  of 
Edom  and  kill  him,  but  they  failed. 


150  ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA 

Then  the  king  of  Moab  took  his  own  eldest  son, 
who  should  have  succeeded  him,  and  offered  him 
up  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  god  of  Moab,  that  he  might 
deliver  his  people.  And  for  some  reason,  the  story 
does  not  tell  us  plainly  why,  the  Israelites  gave  up 
the  siege,  and  returned  home. 

This  is  the  Israelite  account  of  these  wars  between 
Israel  and  Moab,  as  it  has  been  kept  for  us  in  the 
Book  of  Kings.  We  have  also  King  Mesha's  ac- 
count of  wars  between  Israel  and  Moab,  which  was 
found  some  years  ago,  written  upon  a  stone  monu- 
ment. Each  writer  tells  us  most  about  the  victories 
of  his  own  people.  I  will  give  you  a  few  verses  of 
King  Mesha's  story.1 

"I,  Mesha,  am  son  of  Chemoshgad,  of  Dibon, 
king  of  Moab.  My  father  reigned  over  Moab  thirty 
years,  and  I  succeeded  him.  And  I  erected  this 
stone  to  Chemosh  [the  god  of  Moab],  because  he 
saved  me  from  all  plunderers,  and  gave  me  victory 
over  all  my  enemies. 

"  Now  Omri,  king  of  Israel,  oppressed  Moab  many 
days,  because  Chemosh  was  angry  with  his  land  .  .  . 
but  Chemosh  [had  mercy]  on  it  in  my  days.  .  .  .  And 
Chemosh  said  to  me,  Go,  take  Nebo  from  Israel,  and 
I  went  in  the  night,  and  fought  against  it  from  day- 
break till  noon,  and  took  it.  ...  And  I  took  from 
it  the  vessels2  of  Jehovah,  and  offered  them  before 
Chemosh.  ..." 

1  Words  in  brackets  are  explanatory  additions. 

2  It  is  not  certain  if  this  "word  ineans.  vessels. 


THE   WAR    WITH   MOAB  151 

The  rest  of  the  inscription  is  taken  up  with  an 
account  of  Mesha's  victories,  with  a  list  of  the  cities 
he  took  from  Israel,  and  tells  us  of  his  buildings  and 
roads.  All  these  successes  of  Mesha  probably  fol- 
lowed the  retreat  of  the  three  kings  from  Kir- 
haraseth. 


CHAPTER  VI 

NAAMAN 


IN  the  time  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  there  was  almost 
constant  war  between  Israel  and  the  Syrians  of 
Damascus.  Bands  of  Syrians  often  made  raids  into 
the  land  of  Israel,  and  plundered  the  villages  and 
farmhouses,  and  carried  off  the  people  for  slaves. 
Once  a  little  girl  was  carried  off  in  this  way,  and 
she  became  a  slave  in  the  household  of  Naaman,  a 
great  Syrian  general,  and  waited  upon  Naaman's 
wife.  Now  Naaman  was  very  much  thought  of  by 
the  king  and  all  the  people  of  Damascus,  because  he 
was  a  brave  and  skilful  general,  and  by  him  Jehovah 
had  given  victory  to  Syria.  But  he  suffered  from 
the  terrible  disease  of  leprosy. 

One  day  the  little  Israelite  slave-girl  said  to  her 
mistress,  "  Would  God  my  master  were  with  the 
prophet  that  is  in  Samaria,  the  chief  city  of  Israel; 
he  would  cure  my~master  of  his  leprosy." 

When  Naaman  and  the  king  heard  what  she  had 
said,  the  king  sent  Naaman  to  the  king  of  Israel, 
with  a  letter,  in  which  was  written :  "  I  have  sent 
you  Naaman  the  Syrian,  that  you  may  cure  him  of 
his  leprosy." 

The  king  of  Israel  read  the  letter,  and  tore  his 
clothes,  and  said,  "  Am  I  God,  to  kill  and  to  make 

152 


NAAMAN  153 

alive,  that  this  man  sends  to  me  to  cure  a  man  of 
leprosy  ?  He  is  trying  to  find  an  excuse  for  quarrel- 
ling with  me." 

But  Elisha  heard  of  it,  and  bade  the  king  send 
Naaman  to  him.  So  Naaman  came  with  his  horses 
and  chariots,  and  stood  at  the  door  ofjDlisJbtaZs  house. 
And  Elisha  sent  to  him  a  message,  "  Go  and  wash  in 
Jordan  seven  times,  and  your  flesh  shall  be  healed, 
and  you  shall  be  clean." 

But  Naaman  was  angry  because  Elisha  made  so 
little  fuss  with  him,  and  said,  "  I  thought  he  would 
come  out  to  me,  and  stand,  and  call  on  the  name  of 
Jehovah  his  God,  and  wave  his  hand  over  the  place, 
and  cure  the  leprosy.  Are  not  our  rivers  in  Damas- 
cus better  than  all  the  waters  of  Israel  ?  May  I  not 
wash  in  them,  and  be  clean  ?  "  1 

So  he  turned  and  went  away  in  a  rage.  But  his 
servants  came  and  said,  "  My  father,  if  the  prophet 
had  bidden  you  do  some  great  thing,  would  you  not 
have  done  it?  How  much  more,  then,  when  he 
says,  4  Wash,  and  be  clean '  ?  " 

Then  Naaman  went  and  dipped  himself  sejen. 
times  in  Jordan,  as  Elisha  had  told  him ;  his  flesh 
became  like  the  flesh  of  a  little  child,  and  he  was 
clean. 

Then  he  and  all  his  company  went  back  to  Elisha, 
and  he  said,  "I  know  that  there  is  no  God  in  all 
the  earth  but  in  Israel;  now,  therefore,  take  a  present 
of  your  servant." 

1  That  is,  cured  of  his  leprosy. 


154  ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA 

But  Elisha  would  take  nothing.  Then  Naaman 
asked  for  two  mule-loads  of  earth,  to  take  home 
with  him,  and  lay  down  and  build  an  altar  on. 
Because  he  supposed  that,  as  Jehovah  was  the  God 
of  Israel,  He  could  only  be  worshipped  on  Israelite 
soil ;  and  he  begged  that  Jehovah  would  pardon 
him,  because,  as  the  minister  of  the  king  of  Syria, 
he  was  obliged  to  go  with  his  master  to  the  services 
in  the  temple  of  Rimmon,  the  god  of  Damascus. 
And  Elisha  said  unto  him,  "Go  in  peace."  So 
Naaman  departed  for  his  own  country ;  and  we  will 
hope  that  he  sent  the  little  Israelite  maiden  back 
to  her  home  and  her  friends,  but  the  story  tells  us 
nothing  more  about  her. 


CHAPTER   VII 

JEHU 

ELIJAH  had  been  commanded  by  God  to  anoint 
new  kings  for  Israel  and  Syria.  The  prophetic 
anointing  would  be  a  sign  that  these  kings  were 
chosen  by  God.  Elijah  left  this  task  to  be  per- 
formed by  Elisha.  In  the  reign  of  Jehoram,  king 
of  Israel,  the  Israelites  were  holding  the  city  of 
Ramoth-gilead,  east  of  Jordan,  against  the  Syrians 
of  Damascus.  Jehoram  had  been  wounded  in  bat- 
tle, and  had  gone  home  to  Jezreel  to  be  nursed, 
leaving  his  general,  Jehu  the  son  of  Nimshi,  in 
command  of  the  army.  At  this  time,  Elisha  called 
one  of  his  followers  —  the  Hebrew  name  for  them 
was  "  sons  of  the  prophets  "  —  members  of  the  guild 
or  order  of  prophets,  and  bade  him  take  a  vial  of 
oil,  and  go  to  Ramoth-gilead  and  anoint  Jehu  to 
be  king  over  Israel.  So  the  young  prophet,  Elisha's 
messenger,  came  to  Ramoth-gilead,  and  went  into 
the  room  where  the  generals  of  the  army  were 
assembled,  and  said,  "  General,  I  have  an  errand  to 
you." 

Jehu  said,  "  To  which  of  us  all?  " 

He  answered,  "To  you,  General." 

Jehu  went  with  him  into  the  house,  and  when 
they  were  alone,  the  prophet  poured  the  oil  upon 

155 


156  ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA 

Jehu's  head,  and  said  to  him,  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah, 
the  God  of  Israel,  I  have  anointed  you  king  over 
Jehovah's  people,  Israel.  You  shall  put  all  the 
family  of  Ahab  to  death,  to  avenge  the  -blood  of  My 
servants  the  prophets,  and  all  My  servants,  whom 
Jezebel  slew." 

Then  he  opened  the  door  and  fled,  and  Jehu  came 
out  to  the  other  generals,  and  one  "of  them  said  to 
him,  "  Is  all  well  ?  Why  did  this  mad  fellow  come 
to  you?" 

Jehu  answered,  "  Surely  you  knew  who  the  man 
was,  and  what  he  came  for." 

But  they  said,  "  We  know  nothing  about  it ;  tell 
us  now." 

Jehu  told  them  that  the  prophet  had  anointed  him 
king  over  Israel.  Then  all  the  generals  forthwith 
laid  their  robes  on  the  top  of  the  steps  as  a  carpet 
of  state  or  throne  for  Jehu,  and  they  blew  a  trumpet, 
and  shouted,  "Jehu  is  king." 

Jehu  said,  "  If  you  really  wish  me  to  be  king,  see 
that  no  one  is  allowed  to  go  from  here  to  Jezreel, 
to  tell  King  Jehoram  that  there  is  a  rebellion  against 
him." 

Forthwith  Jehu  set  out  for  Jezreel  in  his  chariot, 
with  part  of  the  army.  And  when  the  watchman 
on  the  tower  of  Jezreel  saw  Jehu  and  his  men,  he 
told  Jehoram  that  a  company  of  soldiers  was  coming; 
and  the  king  sent  a  horseman  to  see  who  they  were, 
and  ask  what  they  had  come  for.  But  Jehu  kept 
the  horseman,  and  would  not  let  him  go  back  to 


JEHU  157 

Jehoram.  And  the  watchman  from  the  tower  told 
the  king  that  the  messenger  had  reached  the  com- 
pany, but  was  not  coming  back.  So  the  king  sent 
another  horseman,  and  this  time  the  watchman  re- 
ported, "  He  came  to  them,  but  he  is  not  coming 
back ;  and  the  driving  is  like  the  driving  of  Jehu 
the  son  of  Nimshi,  for  he  drives  furiously." 

Then  Jehoram  had  his  chariot  got  ready,  and 
drove  out  to  meet  Jehu,  and  they  met  in  Naboth's 
vineyard.  When  Jehoram  saw  Jehu,  he  called  out 
to  him,  "  Is  it  peace,  Jehu  ?  " 

Jehu  answered,  "  How  can  there  be  peace,  so  long 
as  your  mother  Jezebel  practises  witchcraft  and  all 
her  abominations?" 

Then  Jehoram  turned  his  chariot  and  fled,  crying, 
"  Treason  !  Treason  !  "  But  Jehu  drew  his  bow, 
with  his  full  strength,  and  shot  an  arrow  into  Jeho- 
ram's  breast,  and  the  king  sank  down  in  his  chariot. 
Jehu  bade  Bidkar,  one  of  his  officers,  throw  the 
body  into  Naboth's  vineyard. 

"For,"  said  he,  " remember  how,  when  you  and  I 
rode  together  behind  his  father  Ahab,  Jehovah  said 
that  the  murder  of  Naboth  should  be  punished  in 
Naboth's  vineyard." 

After  this  Jehu  went  on  to  Jezreel.  When  Jeze- 
bel heard  that  he  had  come,  she  painted  her  eyes, 
and  put  on  a  grand  head-dress,  and  looked  out  of 
the  window.  As  Jehu  came  in  at  the  gate,  she 
called  out,  "  Is  it  peace  ?  You  murderer  of  your 
master  ! " 


158  ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA 

Jehu  looked  up  to  the  window,  and  said,  "Who 
is  on  my  side?" 

Two  or  three  officers  of  the  household  looked 
out ;  and  he  bade  them  throw  her  down.  They 
threw  her  down,  and  Jehu  drove  over  her,  and 
the  walls  and  the  horses  were  sprinkled  with  her 
blood.  Afterwards  Jehu  sent  out  to  have  her 
buried,  and  they  found  nothing  but  her  skull,  and 
the  bones  of  her  hands  and  feet.  When  they  told 
Jehu,  he  said,  "  This  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  word 
of  Jehovah,  which  was  spoken  by  Elijah,  saying,  'In 
Jezreel  shall  the  dogs  eat  the  blood  of  Jezebel.' " 

When  Jehu  was  king,  he  put  down  the  worship 
of  the  Phoenician  god  Baal,  and  was  zealous  in  the 
worship  of  Jehovah.  And  the  kings  of  the  house 
of  Jehu  were  powerful  and  victorious,  especially 
Jeroboam  II.,  who  gained  great  victories  over  Syria 
and  the  enemies  of  Israel,  so  that  under  him  Israel 
was  almost  as  great  as  under  David  and  Solomon, 
because,  as  the  Book  of  Kings  says,  "  By  him  Je- 
hovah gave  deliverance  to  Israel." 


VI 

AMOS,  HOSEA,  AND  ISAIAH 

CHAPTER  I 

AMOS   AND   HOSEA 

BUT  Israel  did  not  make  a  good  use  of  its  pros- 
perity. There  were  many  rich  men,  and  powerful 
nobles ;  many  temples  of  Jehovah,  with  their  priests 
and  sacrifices.  But  this  wealth  and  power  meant 
terrible  misery :  men  got  rich  by  making  others 
poor;  powerful  nobles  obtained  wide  estates  by 
depriving  weaker  men  of  their  land,  as  Ahab  had 
taken  Naboth's  vineyard ;  so  that  very  many  fam- 
ilies in  Israel  were  landless,  and  in  poverty  and 
distress.  The  priests  and  prophets  did  not  try  to 
stop  this  wrongdoing,  but  were  often  themselves 
cruel  and  selfish.  Even  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
at  the  high  places  or  temples  was  superstitious 
and  corrupt ;  there  were  idols  like  the  calves  at 
Bethel  and  Dan,  and  other  gods  were  worshipped 
besides  Jehovah. 

So  when  Israel  was  rich  and  prosperous  under 
its  mighty  and  victorious  king  Jeroboam,  a  prophet 
Amos  came  to  the  great  temple  at  Bethel,  and  de- 

159 


160  AMOS,   HOSEA,    AND   ISAIAH 

clared  to  all  the  people  who  had  come  to  worship 
there,  that  Jeroboam  should  die  by  the  sword,  and 
the  Israelites  should  be  carried  away  captive  to  a 
foreign  country. 

Amaziah,  the  priest  of  Bethel,  was  very  angry, 
and  bade  Amos  leave  the  country,  and  not  come 
to  Bethel  any  more.  But  Amos  and  another 
prophet  named  Hosea  and  others  went  on  declar- 
ing that  Jehovah  would  not  put  up  with  the  cruelty 
and  oppression  and  wickedness  of  the  rulers  and 
priests,  but  that  terrible  punishment  would  fall 
upon  Israel.  Not  very  long  after,  the  king  of  the 
great  empire  of  Assyria  invaded  Israel,  conquered 
the  country,  captured  the  capital  city,  Samaria, 
and  carried  the  Israelites,  the  ten  tribes,  captive  to 
distant  countries ;  andr-they  have  never  been  heard 
of  since. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   CALL   OF  ISAIAH 

ALL  this  while,  kings  of  the  house  of  David 
had  been  reigning  over  Judah  at  Jerusalem,  except 
that,  for  a  short  time,  Ahab's  daughter,  Athaliah, 
who  had  married  a  king  of  Judah,  usurped  the 
throne  after  the  death  of  her  son  Ahaziah.  Judah 
was  never  so  rich  and  powerful  as  Israel ;  but 
under  a  king  Uzziah,  who  reigned  about  the  same 
time  as  Jeroboam  II.  of  Israel,  Judah  was  strong 
and  prosperous.  Its  prosperity  was  followed  by 
the  same  misery  and  sin  as  in  Israel.  The  people 
worshipped  Jehovah,  and  offered  many  sacrifices, 
and  celebrated  solemn  feasts,  especially  at  the 
temple  Solomon  had  built  at  Jerusalem ;  yet  these 
zealous  worshippers  of  Jehovah  were  often  cruel 
and  grasping  oppressors,  and  mingled  superstition 
and  idolatry  with  their  worship. 

God  raised  up  prophets  in  Judah  as  He  had 
done  in  Israel,  to  tell  the  people  that  He  hated 
the  sacrifices  and  services  of  selfish,  wicked  men, 
and  would  punish  them  all  the  more  severely, 
because  they  thought  they  could  bribe  Him  to  let 
them  cheat  and  oppress  their  fellows  by  attending 
public  worship,  and  making  gifts  to  His  priests. 

M  161 


162  AMOS,    HOSEA,   AND   ISAIAH 

The  greatest  of  these  prophets  was  Isaiah  of 
Jerusalem.  He  tells  us  how  he  was  called  to  be 
a  prophet.  He  says,  "  I  saw  a  vision  of  Jehovah 
in  His  temple,  sitting  on  a  lofty  throne,  and  His 
robes  filled  the  temple.  Above  Him  were  the 
seraphim,  each  with  six  wings,  and  they  cried 
one  to  another,  Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  Jehovah  Saba- 
oth ;  the  whole  earth  is  full  of  His  glory.  Then 
the  foundations  of  the  thresholds  shook,  and  the 
temple  was  filled  with  smoke.  Then  said  I,  Woe 
is  me !  for  I  am  undone ;  because  I  am  a  man  of 
unclean  lips,  and  I  live  among  a  people  of  unclean 
lips ;  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  Jehovah 
Sabaoth. 

"  Then  there  flew  unto  me  one  of  the  seraphim, 
with  a  hot  stone  in  his  hand,  which  he  had  taken 
with  the  tongs  from  off  the  altar ;  and  he  touched 
my  mouth  with  it,  and  said,  This  has  touched 
your  lips ;  your  wickedness  is  taken  away,  and 
your  sin  is  pardoned. 

"And  I  heard  the  voice  of  Jehovah  saying, 
Whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  for  us  ? 

"  Then  said  I :  Here  am  I;  send  me." 

Then  Isaiah  tells  us  how  he  was  sent  to  warn 
the  people  of  the  terrible  punishment  that  would 
overtake  Judah  for  its  sin.  God  told  him  that  the 
people  would  not  heed  his  warning,  but  that  yet 
there  would  be  a  holy  remnant  who  would  be  saved. 

So  for  years  Isaiah  rebuked  the  kings  of  Judah 
and  their  nobles  and  subjects  for  their  sins,  and 


THE   CALL   OF   ISAIAH  163 

warned  them  of  the  coming  punishment.  Most 
of  the  people  did  not  heed  his  warning.  Yet  there 
gathered  round  him  a  few  followers,  who  believed 
in  his  message,  and  wished  to  live  according  to  his 
teaching. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  DELIVERANCE  FROM   SENNACHERIB 

AT  last  punishment  came  upon  Judah  in  the  reign 
of  a  king  called  Hezekiah.  He  himself  believed 
in  Isaiah,  and  tried  to  do  the  will  of  God  according 
to  the  prophet's  teaching ;  but  many  of  his  nobles 
went  on  in  their  old  ways.  A  good  king  cannot 
make  his  people  good  all  at  once. 

After  the  Assyrians  had  taken  and  destroyed 
Samaria,  and  carried  Israel  away  captive,  the  people 
in  Judah  and  the  neighbouring  countries  were  very 
much  afraid  that  the  Assyrians  would  treat  them  in 
the  same  way.  Many  of  them  wished  to  get  help 
from  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  to  unite  all  Syria  to 
defy  the  Assyrians  and  fight  against  them.  But 
Isaiah  tried  to  persuade  Hezekiah  to  keep  quiet,  and 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Egyptian  alliance 
against  Assyria.  At  last,  however,  the  Egyptian 
party  in  Judah  persuaded  Hezekiah  to  unite  with 
his  neighbours,  and  with  Egypt  to  fight  against 
Assyria.  Then  the  Assyrian  king  Sennacherib 
marched  into  Palestine  with  a  great  army,  took 
many  cities,  and  defeated  an  Egyptian  army  that 
came  to  help  the  allies.  How  he  dealt  with  Heze- 
kiah we  learn  from  one  of  Sennacherib's  own  in- 

164 


THE   DELIVERANCE  FROM  SENNACHERIB       165 

scriptions,  which  says,  "  As  for  Hezekiah  of  Judah, 
who  had  not  submitted  to  my  yoke,  I  besieged  and 
took  forty-six  of  his  strong  cities  and  numberless 
smaller  towns,  by  battering  down  the  walls  and  by 
assault.  I  took  200,150  prisoners,  young  and  old, 
male  and  female,  together  with  horses,  mules,  asses, 
camels,  oxen  and  sheep,  too  many  to  count.  I  shut 
up  Hezekiah  himself  in  his  royal  city  Jerusalem 
like  a  bird  in  a  cage." 

Sennacherib  goes  on  to  tell  how  he  gave  the  cities 
of  Judah  to  their  neighbours,  and  how  Hezekiah 
submitted,  and  sent  ambassadors  to  him,  and  paid 
him  tribute.  But  Sennacherib  does  not  tell  us 
what  happened  afterwards.  For  the  end  of  the 
story  we  must  go  back  to  the  Book  of  Kings. 

Although  Hezekiah  submitted  to  Sennacherib, 
and  sent  him  much  gold  and  silver,  Sennacherib 
sent  an  army  to  take  Jerusalem.  His  generals 
tried  to  persuade  the  people  to  give  up  the  city  to 
them.  They  said,  "  Don't  believe  Hezekiah  when 
he  tells  you  that  Jehovah  will  save  you.  Has  any 
god  ever  saved  his  people  from  the  king  of  Assyria  ? 
All  the  countries  we  have  conquered  had  their  gods ; 
and  where  are  they  ?  Did  they  save  the  people  who 
trusted  them  ?  How,  then,  can  Jehovah  save  Jeru- 
salem from  our  king  ?  " 

But  the  people  gave  the  Assyrians  no  answer, 
and  Hezekiah's  officers  told  him  what  had  been 
said.  And  Hezekiah  tore  his  clothes,  and  put  on 
sackcloth,  and  went  into  the  temple  and  prayed 


166  AMOS,   HOSEA,   AND   ISAIAH 

to  Jehovah,  telling  Him  how  scornfully  the  Assyr- 
ians had  spoken  of  the  God  of  Israel.  And  he 
sent  some  of  his  chief  officers  to  Isaiah  for  advice 
and  comfort.  Isaiah  sent  him  a  message  that  his 
prayers  would  be  answered,  that  Jerusalem  would 
not  be  taken,  that  Sennacherib  would  not  even  come 
to  attack  it,  but  would  go  back  to  his  own  country 
another  way. 

That  night  the  angel  of  Jehovah  went  forth,  and 
slew  180,000  men  in  the  Assyrian  camp,  perhaps  by 
some  terrible  disease  ;  and  when  those  who  were  left 
got  up  next  morning,  they  found  them  all  dead 
corpses.  Then  Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria,  set  off 
home  to  Nineveh  and  stayed  in  the  East  till  he  was 
murdered  by  two  of  his  sons. 


VII 

JEREMIAH 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   PUTTING  DOWN   OF   THE   HIGH   PLACES 

I  HAVE  told  you  how  at  the  high  places  and  other 
temples  idols  were  worshipped,  and  other  evil  prac- 
tices carried  on  ;  and  how  the  prophets  condemned 
such  worship.  Hezekiah  did  something  to  put  a 
stop  to  it ;  but,  when  he  died,  things  were  worse 
than  ever.  His  son  and  successor  Manasseh  encour- 
aged the  evil  worship  at  the  high  places,  and  even 
placed  altars  to  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars  in  the 
courts  of  Solomon's  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  His  son 
and  successor  Amon  followed  in  his  footsteps.  Amon 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  Josiah,  a  child  eight  years 
old.  Of  course,  while  Josiah  was  a  boy,  the  gov- 
ernment was  carried  on  by  some  of  the  nobles  and 
princes. 

When  King  Josiah  was  twenty-one,  God  raised  up 
a  prophet,  Jeremiah,  who  was  a  young  man  like  the 
king.  When  God  called  him  to  be  a  prophet,  he 
said,  "  0  Lord  Jehovah,  I  cannot  speak,  I  am  but  a 
youth." 

167 


168  JEREMIAH 

"  Then,"  he  tells  us,  "  Jehovah  put  forth  His  hand 
and  touched  my  mouth,  and  said,  c  I  have  put  My 
words  in  your  mouth. ' ' 

Jeremiah,  like  Isaiah,  was  commanded  to  warn 
Judah  that  it  would  be  punished  for  its  sins.  So 
the  prophet  began  to  preach  against  the  selfishness, 
oppression,  and  idolatry  of  the  men  of  Judah,  espe- 
cially of  the  nobles,  priests,  and  prophets.  For  there 
were  many  who  made  a  livelihood  out  of  teaching 
the  will  of  God,  but  only  a  few  true  prophets  who 
really  had  the  word  of  Jehovah. 

The  Book  of  Kings  does  not  tell  us  anything 
about  Jeremiah  ;  but  we  may  be  sure  that  he  would 
try  to  persuade  Josiah  to  observe  the  law  of  God. 
We  read  that  Josiah,  when  he  was  twenty-six,  set 
to  work  to  repair  Solomon's  Temple,  most  likely 
because  he  believed  Jeremiah,  and  was  anxious  to 
carry  out  his  teaching. 

While  the  temple  was  being  repaired,  the  high- 
priest,  Hilkiah,  came  to  the  king's  secretary,  Sha- 
phan,  and  said,  "I  have  found  the  book  of  the  law 
in  the  temple  of  Jehovah." 

Shaphan  read  the  book  himself,  and  then  took  it, 
and  read  it  to  the  king.  The  contents  of  this  law- 
book  were  very  like  those  of  our  Book  of  Deuteron- 
omy, which  threatens  the  Jews  with  punishment  for 
such  sins  as  the  men  of  Judah  were  in  the  habit  of 
committing. 

So  when  Josiah  heard  it  read,  he  was  much  dis- 
tressed, and  tore  his  clothes.  He  sent  his  officers  to 


PUTTING   DOWN   OF   THE   HIGH  PLACES         169 

a  prophetess  named  Huldah  to  ask  about  the  book. 
She  told  them  that  Jerusalem  would  be  punished  for 
worshipping  false  gods,  but  that  the  evil  should  not 
come  in  Josiah's  time. 

Afterwards  the  king  gathered  the  people  together 
at  Jerusalem,  and  read  them  the  book.  And  the 
king  and  the  people  made  a  covenant,  and  solemnly 
promised  to  do  as  the  book  bade  them.  Then  they 
set  to  work  to  clear  out  of  the  temple  all  the  altars 
and  vessels  and  furniture  used  for  the  worship  of 
false  gods.  They  destroyed  the  temples  of  false 
gods  everywhere,  and  they  broke  down  the  high 
places.  The  king  forbade  the  people  to  worship  any 
more  at  the  high  places,  and  ordered  them  to  sacri- 
fice only  at  Solomon's  Temple,  where  he  and  his 
officers  could  see  that  everything  was  done  decently 
and  in  order.  So  Josiah  reformed  the  religion  of 
Judah  as  far  as  public  worship  was  concerned. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FALL   OF  JERUSALEM 

JOSIAH  was  killed  in  battle,  and  probably  people 
took  this  as  a  sign  that  Jehovah  did  not  approve  of 
his  reforms.  At  any  rate,  his  successors  went  back 
to  the  old  evil  ways.  Jeremiah  protested,  but  they 
took  little  notice.  Once  the  prophet  came  forward 
in  the  temple  at  a  great  feast,  and  told  the  people 
that  Jerusalem  and  its  temple  would  be  destroyed, 
as  Shiloh  and  its  temple  had  been  destroyed  long 
ago. 

This  saying,  that  Jehovah's  one  holy  temple  would 
be  destroyed,  seemed  so  wicked  and  blasphemous, 
that  the  priests  and  prophets  and  people  laid  hold  of 
Jeremiah,  and  dragged  him  before  the  princes  of 
Judah  to  have  him  put  to  death.  But  some  of  the 
princes  were  his  friends,  and  protected  him. 

Yet,  at  one  time  and  another,  Jeremiah  was 
greatly  persecuted,  because  he  persisted  in  warning 
the  people  of  the  punishment  that  must  follow  their 
sins.  Once  he  was  beaten,  and  put  in  the  stocks. 

Meanwhile,  the  punishment  of  Judah  was  coming 
very  near.  The  empire  of  the  Assyrians,  who  had 
once  ruled  over  Western  Asia,  had  been  overthrown 
by  the  Chaldeans  of  Babylon  and  their  allies,  and 
Judah  had  to  submit  to  them.  And  now,  as  in  the 

170 


\J  I 


HIGH-PRIEST  WEARING  THE  EPHOD 
171 


Or  THF 

UNIVERSITY 

or 


THE   FALL   OF  JERUSALEM  173 

time  of  Isaiah,  there  was  an  Egyptian  party  at 
Jerusalem  who  wished  to  join  Egypt  and  the  neigh- 
bouring countries,  and  rebel  against  Babylon.  But 
Jeremiah,  like  Isaiah,  tried  to  persuade  the  kings  of 
Judah  to  keep  quiet,  and  to  have  nothing  to  do  with 
Egypt.  Sometimes  they  followed  Jeremiah's  advice, 
but,  as  a  rule,  they  revolted  whenever  there  seemed 
the  least  chance  of  success. 

The  last  king  of  Judah  was  Zedekiah,  one  of  the 
sons  of  Josiah.  He,  too,  rebelled  against  Babylon, 
and  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  came  against 
him  with  a  great  army.  Jeremiah  tried  to  persuade 
Zedekiah  to  submit,  and  he  was  inclined  to  do  so. 
But  the  princes  who  wished  to  join  Egypt  prevented 
the  king  from  submitting.  They  arrested  Jeremiah 
on  a  charge  of  intending  to  desert  to  the  Chaldeans, 
and  let  him  down  into  a  muddy  pit,  and  he  sank  in 
the  mud.  Most  likely  they  meant  to  let  him  starve 
to  death  in  the  pit.  But  Jeremiah  had  a  friend  in 
the  king's  household,  an  Ethiopian,  Ebedmelech. 
When  he  heard  what  had  happened,  he  got  the 
king's  permission  to  take  Jeremiah  out  of  the  pit. 
Ebedmelech  provided  himself  with  ropes,  and  a 
number  of  old  rags,  and  thirty  men,  and  went  to 
the  pit,  and  let  down  the  ropes  and  rags  to  Jeremiah. 
Jeremiah  fastened  the  ropes  under  his  armpits,  with 
the  rags  between  his  flesh  and  the  ropes.  Then 
they  drew  him  up  out  of  the  pit,  but  he  still  re- 
mained in  prison. 

Not  long  after,  the  city  was  taken  by  the  Chal- 


174  JEREMIAH 

deans.  The  city  and  temple  were  destroyed,  many 
of  the  people  were  killed,  and  many  more  were 
carried  away  captive  to  Babylon.  Some  were  al- 
lowed to  stay  in  Judah,  amongst  them  Jeremiah, 
who  was  released  from  prison,  and  treated  with 
great  respect.  But  those  who  were  left  in  Judah 
fled  into  Egypt,  and  took  Jeremiah  with  them ;  and 
the  last  that  we  hear  of  the  prophet  is  that  he  had 
to  rebuke  his  fellow-countrymen  in  Egypt,  and 
especially  the  women,  for  their  wickedness  and 
idolatry. 


VIII 

RELIGIOUS  STORIES  OF  ANCIENT  ISRAEL 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   CREATION 

WE  have  come  to  an  end  of  the  stories  about  the 
Israelite  kingdoms.  Next  I  want  to  tell  you  some 
of  the  stories  through  which  the  Israelites  were 
taught  many  useful  lessons,  especially  that  their 
God  Jehovah  was  God  of  the  whole  world,  and  made 
men  and  women  and  all  things.  They  are  often 
thought  to  be  rather  poems  or  parables  than  history. 
The  Babylonians  had  stories  very  much  like  these 
Israelite  stories,  only  the  Babylonian  stories  do  not 
teach  true  and  helpful  lessons  like  those  of  the 
Bible. 

The  first  is  about  the  Creation.  There  was  a 
time  when  there  were  no  trees  or  plants,  because 
there  had  never  been  any  rain,  and  there  were  no 
men  to  do  any  gardening.  First  of  all,  a  mist  used 
to  come  up  and  water  the  earth.  Then  Jehovah 
made  a  man  out  of  the  dust,  and  breathed  into  his 
nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  so  that  the  man  became 

175 


176      RELIGIOUS   STORIES   OF   ANCIENT   ISRAEL 

alive.  Then  Jehovah  planted  a  garden  in  the  East, 
in  Eden,  and  put  the  man  in  it  to  take  care  of  it. 

And  Jehovah  commanded  him,  "  You  may  eat  the 
fruit  of  every  tree  in  the  garden,  except  the  tree 
of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  You  must  not 
eat  the  fruit  of  that  tree,  else  you  will  die." 

Then  Jehovah  thought,  "  It  is  not  good  for  the 
man  to  be  alone ;  I  will  make  a  companion  for 
him." 

So  Jehovah  made  out  of  the  soil  all  the  animals 
and  birds ;  and  brought  them  to  the  man  to  see 
what  he  would  call  them,  and  in  this  way  they  all 
got  their  names.  But  no  one  of  them  was  fit  to  be 
the  man's  companion.  Then  Jehovah  made  the 
man  fall  into  a  very  sound  sleep,  and  He  took  out 
one  of  his  ribs,  and  closed  up  the  place  ;  and  out  of 
the  rib  He  built  up  a  woman,  and  brought  her  to 
the  man. 

And  the  man  said,  "This  is  now  bone  of  my 
bone  and  flesh  of  my  flesh." 

And  he  called  her  name  Ishshah,  which  means 
woman,  because  she  was  taken  out  of  man;  for 
the  Hebrew  for  man  was  ish.  And  the  man  and 
his  wife  were  naked  and  not  ashamed. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  FALL 

Now  the  serpent  was  more  cunning  than  any 
other  animal  which  Jehovah  had  made. 

And  he  said  to  the  woman,  "  Has  God  really  said 
that  you  may  not  eat  of  any  of  the  trees  of  the 
garden  ?  " 

She  answered,  "We  may  eat  the  fruit  of  all  the 
trees,  except  the  one  in  the  middle  of  the  garden. 
Of  that,  God  said,  'You  must  not  eat  it,  or  touch 
it,  else  you  will  die.'" 

The  serpent  said  to  her,  "  You  certainly  will  not 
die.  God  knows  that,  if  you  eat  the  fruit  of  that 
tree,  your  eyes  will  be  opened,  and  you  will  know 
good  and  evil,  and  will  be  as  wise  as  He  is  Him- 
self." 

She  saw  that  the  fruit  was  nice  and  pretty,  and 
she  wanted  to  be  wise ;  so  she  took  some  and  ate 
it,  and  made  her  husband  eat  some  too.  Then  the 
eyes  of  both  of  them  were  opened,  and  they  knew 
that  they  were  naked ;  and  they  sewed  fig-leaves 
together,  and  made  themselves  aprons.  And  they 
heard  the  sound  of  Jehovah,  as  He  walked  in  the 
garden,  in  the  cool  of  the  day ;  and  they  hid  from 
Him  amongst  the  trees  of  the  garden. 
N  177 


178      RELIGIOUS   STORIES   OF   ANCIENT   ISRAEL 

But  Jehovah  called  to  the  man,  "  Where  are 
you?" 

He  answered,  "  I  heard  Thee  in  the  garden,  and 
I  was  afraid  because  I  was  naked,  and  I  hid 
myself." 

Jehovah  said,  "Who  told  you  that  you  were 
naked?  Have  you  eaten  the  fruit  I  forbade  you 
to  eat?" 

The  man  said,  "  The  woman  whom  you  gave  me 
for  a  companion  made  me  eat  the  fruit." 

Jehovah  said  to  the  woman,  "  How  came  you  to 
do  this?" 

She  said,  "The  serpent  beguiled  me,  and  I  ate 
the  fruit." 

Then  Jehovah  said  that  all  three  would  be  pun- 
ished: the  serpent  would  have  to  crawl  upon  its 
belly,  and  eat  dust ;  the  woman  would  suffer  much 
pain,  and  be  subject  to  her  husband  ;  and  the  man 
would  have  to  work  very  hard  for  a  living. 

Then  Jehovah  made  skin  coats  for  the  man  and 
his  wife  to  wear ;  and  they  were  driven  out  of  the 
garden  of  Eden,  to  till  the  waste  lands  outside. 
And,  east  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  Jehovah  placed 
the  cherubim  with  flaming  swords  pointing  every 
way,  to  keep  the  man  and  woman  from  ever 
getting  back  into  Eden. 


CHAPTER  III 

CAIN  AND  ABEL 

THE  man  and  woman  —  Adam  and  Eve  they  were 
called  —  had  two  sons,  Cain  and  Abel.  When  they 
grew  up,  Abel  kept  sheep,  and  Cain  grew  corn  and 
fruit.  Cain  brought  to  Jehovah  an  offering  from 
his  fields,  and  Abel  brought  the  firstlings  of  his 
flock.  Jehovah  was  pleased  with  Abel  and  his 
offering,  but  He  was  displeased  with  Cain  and 
his  offering.  Whereupon  Cain  was  very  angry, 
and  his  countenance  fell. 

Jehovah  said  to  Cain,  "Why  are  you  angry,  and 
why  has  your  countenance  fallen  ?  If  you  do  well, 
shall  I  not  be  pleased  with  you?  But  if  you  do 
ill,  sin  crouches  at  your  door,  and  lies  in  wait  for 
you.  Yet  you  may  master  it." 

But  Cain  said  to  his  brother  Abel,  "Let  us  go 
into  the  field." 

And,  when  they  were  in  the  field,  Cain  turned 
upon  Abel,  and  murdered  him. 

And  Jehovah  said  to  Cain,  "  Where  is  your 
brother  Abel?" 

He  answered,  "I  don't  know.  Am  I  my 
brother's  keeper?" 

But  Jehovah  said,  "  What  have  you  done  ?  Your 
brother's  blood  cries  to  Me  from  the  ground.  This 

179 


180      RELIGIOUS   STORIES   OF   ANCIENT  ISRAEL 

land  shall  no  longer  give  you  corn  when  you  till  it, 
but  you  shall  be  a  fugitive  and  wanderer  in  the 
earth." 

Cain  said,  "  My  punishment  is  more  than  I  can 
bear.  Thou  hast  driven  me  out  from  this  land  ; 
and  I  shall  be  hidden  from  Thee  ;  and  I  shall  be  a 
fugitive  and  wanderer  in  the  earth.  Any  one  who 
meets  me  will  kill  me." 

But  Jehovah  said,  "If  any  one  kills  Cain,  seven- 
fold vengeance  .shall  be  taken  upon  him." 

And  Jehovah  set  a  mark  upon  Cain,  lest  any  one 
who  met  him  should  kill  him. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   FLOOD 

As  time  went  on,  there  came  to  be  a  great  many 
people  in  the  world,  and  Jehovah  saw  that  they  were 
very  wicked ;  and  He  said,  "  I  will  destroy  mankind 
and  the  beasts  and  birds  and  creeping  things,  for 
I  am  sorry  that  I  made  them.'' 

But  there  was  one  good  man,  Noah,  with  whom 
Jehovah  was  pleased ;  and  he  bade  him  build  a  great 
floating  house  or  uark."  When  the  ark  was  fin- 
ished, Jehovah  bade  Noah  and  all  his  family  go  into 
it,  and  take  with  them  seven  of  each  kind  of  clean  beast 
that  might  be  eaten  and  two  of  each  kind  of  unclean 
beast  that  might  not  be  eaten.  He  told  Noah  that 
in  a  week  He  would  send  a  great  rain,  and  it  would 
keep  on  raining  for  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  and 
every  living  thing  on  the  earth  would  be  drowned. 
And  Noah  did  all  that  Jehovah  told  him.  He  and 
his  sons  and  their  wives  went  into  the  ark,  and  the 
beasts  and  birds  with  them ;  and  Jehovah  shut  him 
in.  Seven  days  later  the  flood  began,  and  it  rained 
for  forty  days  and  forty  nights.  The  water  rose, 
and  floated  the  ark ;  and  every  living  thing,  men 
and  women  and  children,  beasts  and  birds,  were 
drowned.  None  were  left  except  Noah  and  those 
with  him  in  the  ark. 

181 


182      RELIGIOUS   STOEIES   OF   ANCIENT   ISRAEL 

When  the  rain  stopped,  at  the  end  of  the  forty 
days,  the  waters  began  to  go  down.  And  Noah 
opened  the  window  of  the  ark,  and  sent  out  a 
raven;  but  the  raven  never  came  back,  it  flew  to 
and  fro  till  the  water  had  dried  up.  Then  Noah 
sent  out  a  dove,  to  see  if  the  water  had  gone  down 
from  the  land.  And  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the 
sole  of  its  foot,  because  the  earth  was  still  covered 
with  water;  and  it  came  back  to  the  ark  to  Noah, 
and  he  put  out  his  hand,  and  took  it  in.  Then  he 
waited  a  week,  and  sent  out  the  dove  again ;  and  it 
came  back  in  the  evening  with  a  fresh  olive  leaf  in 
its  beak.  Then  Noah  knew  that  the  land  was  free 
from  water.  But  he  waited  another  week,  and  sent 
out  the  dove  again,  but  it  never  came  back. 

At  the  end  of  the  week  Noah  took  the  roof  off  the 
ark,  and  looked,  and  saw  that  the  ground  was  dry ; 
and  Noah  and  his  family  came  out  of  the  ark.  He 
built  an  altar  to  Jehovah,  and  took  some  of  every 
kind  of  clean  beast  and  bird,  and  sacrificed  them  as 
burnt-offerings.  And  Jehovah  smelt  the  pleasant 
smell  of  the  smoke,  and  said  to  Himself,  "  I  will  not 
curse  the  ground  any  more,  to  punish  men,  because 
from  childhood  they  are  given  to  evil  thoughts  ;  and 
I  will  not  again  destroy  every  living  thing,  as  I  have 
done  by  the  flood.  While  the  earth  lasts,  there  shall 
always  be  seedtime  and  harvest,  and  cold  and  heat, 
and  summer  and  winter,  and  day  and  night." 


1/0 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  TOWER   OF   BABEL 

IN  ancient  times,  everybody  spoke  the  same  lan- 
guage, and  lived  together  as  one  people.  And,  as 
they  journeyed  eastward,  they  found  a  plain  in  a 
country  called  Shinar,  and  settled  down  there, 
and  said,  "Let  us  make  brick,  and  burn  them 
thoroughly." 

And  they  had  brick  for  stone  and  pitchy  mud  for 
mortar. 

Then  they  said,  "  Let  us  build  a  city  and  a  tower, 
whose  top  may  reach  to  heaven,  and  be  a  landmark 
for  us,  lest  we  be  scattered  abroad  over  the  face  of 
the  whole  earth." 

But  Jehovah  came  down  to  look  at  the  city  and 
tower  that  men  were  building,  and  said,  "They 
are  all  one  people,  and  speak  the  same  language  ; 
and  what  they  are  doing  is  only  a  beginning  ;  if 
they  succeed  in  this,  they  will  do  everything  they 
wish.  Let  us  go  down  and  confuse  their  language, 
that  they  may  no  longer  be  able  to  understand  each 
other." 

Then  Jehovah  made  them  speak  different  lan- 
guages, so  that  they  could  no  longer  understand  one 

183 


184      RELIGIOUS   STORIES   OF   ANCIENT  ISRAEL 

another  ;  scattered  them  abroad  from  thence  over 
all  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  and  they  left  off  build- 
ing the  city.  And  the  place  was  called  Babel  or 
Confusion,  because  of  the  confusion  of  languages 
there. 


IX 

THE  NEW  ISRAEL 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  NEW   TEMPLE 

THE  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  temple, 
together  with  the  exile  to  Babylon,  mark  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  Israel.  This  new  Israel  was  chiefly 
the  survivors  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  especially  the 
exiles  at  Babylon.  After  they  had  been  some  time 
at  Babylon,  God  raised  up  prophets,  who  told  the 
exiles  that  they  should  return  to  their  own  land, 
and  that  Jerusalem  and  the  temple  would  be  re- 
built. About  fifty  years  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldeans,  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia, 
overthrew  the  Chaldean  Empire,  and  took  Babylon. 
He  allowed  the  exiles  to  return  to  Palestine,  and 
rebuild  Jerusalem  and  the  temple.  Some  of  them 
went  to  Palestine,  but  very  many  stayed  in  Baby- 
lon. Though  they  still  called  themselves  Israel, 
they  are  generally  spoken  of  as  Jews,  or  men  of 
Judah,  and  their  country  as  Judaea. 

The  returning  exiles  went  back  to  a  desolate 
country,  and  a  ruined  city  and  temple.  During  the 

185 


186  THE  NEW   ISRAEL 

exile,  neighbouring  tribes  had  taken  some  of  the 
land  of  Judah.  They  wished  to  have  a  share  in 
building  the  temple  ;  and,  when  the  Jews  refused, 
they  were  angry,  and  did  all  they  could  to  injure 
them  and  hinder  their  building. 

The  foundations  of  a  new  temple  were  laid,  to  -the 
music  of  trumpets  and  cymbals ;  and  the  priests 
sang  hymns  and  praised  Jehovah,  and  the  people 
shouted  aloud  for  joy,  because  the  foundation  of  the 
temple  of  Jehovah  was  laid.  But  the  very  old  men, 
who  remembered  the  former  temple,  wept  aloud,  and 
the  shouts  of  joy  were  mingled  with  wailing  and 
lamentation,  so  that  the  one  could  not  be  distin- 
guished from  the  other.  But  the  noise  could  be 
heard  a  great  way  off. 

After  the  foundation  was  laid,  the  enemies  of  the 
Jews  persuaded  the  king  of  Persia  to  stop  the  build- 
ing, and  it  was  many  years  before  the  Jews  could 
get  permission  to  go  on  with  it.  But  at  last  the 
temple  was  finished,  and  opened  by  a  solemn  dedi- 
cation, with  feasts  and  sacrifices  and  great  rejoicings. 


A  BIT  OF  THE  WALL  OF  JERUSALEM  :  THE  NORTH  ANGLE 
187 


CHAPTER  II 

EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH 

THE  troubles  of  the  Jews  were  not  over  when  the 
new  temple  was  built.  They  were  still  poor  and 
weak,  and  had  many  enemies.  They  were  not  so 
much  given  to  idolatry  and  superstition  as  the  old 
Israelites,  but  still  they  fell  into  many  of  the  sins 
against  which  Amos  and  Isaiah  prophesied.  In  times 
of  distress  the  rich  took  advantage  of  the  necessities 
of  the  poor  to  get  possession  of  their  land,  and  to 
sell  their  debtors  for  slaves.  Some  of  the  Jewish 
nobles  married  heathen  wives,  and  gave  their  daugh- 
ters to  heathen  husbands,  so  that  it  seemed  likely 
that  soon  they  would  worship  false  gods  as  well  as 
Jehovah. 

But  help  came  from  the  Jews  who  had  stayed 
behind  in  Babylon.  There  was  in  Babylon  a  Jewish 
priest  named  Ezra,  who  was  called  "  The  Scribe," 
because  he  was  learned  in  the  law ;  and  also  a  Jew 
named  Nehemiah,  who  held  the  high  office  of  cup- 
bearer to  the  Persian  king.  Ezra  came  to  Jerusalem 
with  a  large  company  of  Babylonian  Jews.  Not 
long  after,  Nehemiah  was  appointed  governor  of 
Judah  by  the  Persian  king,  and  also  came  to  Jeru- 
salem. He  built  strong  walls  for  the  city,  so  that 

189 


190 


THE   NEW   ISRAEL 


it  could  not  be  taken  by  the  enemy,  and  he  made 
the  rich  who  had  taken  land  from  the  poor  restore 
it  to  the  former  owners,  and  he  set  things  in  order 
generally. 


ANCIENT  MANUSCRIPTS  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH 

Now,  Ezra  had  brought  with  him  from  Babylon 
a  book  of  the  Law,  something  like  the  book  found 
in  the  temple  in  Josiah's  reign,  but  with  more  laws 
in  it,  and  better  suited  to  the  New  Israel.  It  was 
either  our  Pentateuch  —  that  is,  Genesis,  Exodus, 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH 


191 


Leviticus,  Numbers,  and   Deuteronomy  —  or   some- 
thing very  much  like  it. 

Ezra  and  Nehemiah  gathered  all  the  people  to- 
gether in  a  large  open  space  before  one  of  the  gates 


ANCIENT  MANUSCRIPTS  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH  ROLLED  UP 

of  Jerusalem.  And  Ezra  took  with  him  the  book 
of  the  Law,  and  stood  upon  a  pulpit  of  wood,  which 
had  been  specially  made  for  the  occasion,  and  opened 
the  book  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people  ;  and  all  the 
people  stood  up.  Then,  Ezra  blessed  Jehovah,  the 


192  THE  NEW   ISRAEL 

great  God,  and  all  the  people  answered,  "Amen! 
Amen !  "  and  lifted  up  their  hands.  Then  they 
bowed  their  heads,  and  worshipped  Jehovah  with 
their  faces  to  the  ground. 

Then  Ezra  read  the  book  to  the  people,  men  and 
women,  and  all  who  were  old  enough  to  under- 
stand ;  and  the  Levites,  or  assistant  priests,  ex- 
plained the  laws  to  the  people.  And  Ezra  read 
from  daybreak  to  noon,  and  went  on  reading  every 
day  for  a  week. 

And  the  people  and  their  priests  and  rulers 
solemnly  promised  by  a  covenant  to  keep  these 
laws,  as  Josiah  and  his  people  promised  to  keep 
the  laws  in  the  book  found  in  the  temple. 

For  the  most  part,  they  and  the  Jews  of  later 
generations  kept  this  covenant,  and  no  longer  fell 
into  idolatry,  or  into  the  old  superstitions.  But 
they  were  often  guilty  of  other  sins,  and  were  so 
busy  attending  to  all  the  laws  that  told  them  what 
kind  of  meat  to  eat,  and  how  often  they  should  wash 
themselves,  that  many  of  them  forgot  the  teaching 
of  the  prophets  on  kindness  and  justice. 

Yet  in  many  ways  they  knew  more  about  God  and 
His  will  than  their  fathers  had  done,  and  kept  up  in 
the  temple  the  worship  of  one  invisible,  all-ruling 
God  without  idols.  Till  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
came,  there  was  a  Jewish  people  in  Palestine,  some- 
times ruled  by  their  own  priests,  and  sometimes  by 
governors  appointed  by  Persian  or  Syrian  or  Egyp- 
tian kings  or  by  the  Romans.  Besides  these,  there 


EZRA   AND   NEHEMIAH  193 

were  Jews  in  Babylon,  and  Jews  in  Egypt,  Jews 
almost  everywhere  throughout  the  Roman  Empire 
and  in  the  East.  And  all  these  Jews  were  looking 
for  a  Saviour  who  should  deliver  Israel,  and  bring 
the  whole  world  to  know  and  serve  Jehovah. 


X 

RELIGIOUS  STORIES  OF  THE  NEW  ISRAEL 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  CREATION 

GOD  had  taught  the  Jews  more  about  Himself  and 
His  will  than  the  ancient  Israelites  had  known.  So 
that  it  was  natural  that  the  Jews  should  tell  the  old 
stories  in  a  new  way,  to  teach  the  old  lessons  more 
clearly  and  forcibly,  and  to  teach  new  lessons  as 
well.  I  will  tell  you  two  of  these  new  editions  of 
old  stories;  first,  the  story  of  the  Creation. 

In  the  beginning  God  created  heaven  and  earth. 
The  earth  was  empty  and  desolate,  and  darkness  was 
upon  the  face  of  the  sea;  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
brooded  upon  the  face  of  the  waters. 

God  said,  "  Let  there  be  light." 

Light  shone  out,  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good; 
and  He  separated  the  light  from  the  darkness,  and 
called  the  light  Day,  and  the  darkness  Night.  And 
evening  and  morning  were  one  day. 

God  said,  "  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the  midst 
of  the  waters,  to  divide  them  into  two  parts." 

194      f 


THE  CREATION  195 

So  God  made  the  firmament,  which  divided  the 
waters  in  the  sea  beneath  it  from  the  waters  in  the 
clouds  above  it.  God  called  the  firmament  Heaven. 
And  evening  and  morning  were  a  second  day. 

God  said,  "  Let  the  lower  waters  be  gathered  into 
one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land  appear." 

Then  the  waters  were  gathered  together,  and  the 
dry  land  appeared;  and  God  called  the  dry  land 
Earth  and  the  water  Seas.  And  God  saw  that  it 
was  good. 

God  said,  "  Let  the  earth  produce  grass  and  plants 
and  fruit  trees." 

Then  grass  and  plants  and  trees  grew  out  of  the 
earth,  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And  evening 
and  morning  were  a  third  day. 

God  said,  "  Let  there  be  lights  in  heaven  to  sepa- 
rate day  from  night,  and  to  fix  seasons,  and  days  and 
years,  and  to  give  light  upon  the  earth." 

So  God  made  two  great  lights,  the  greater  to  rule 
the  day,  and  the  lesser  to  rule  the  night ;  and  also 
the  stars ;  and  He  set  them  in  the  firmament  of 
heaven.  And  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And 
evening  and  morning  were  a  fourth  day. 

God  said,  "  Let  the  waters  swarm  with  swarms  of 
living  creatures,  and  let  birds  fly  in  the  open  firma- 
ment of  heaven." 

So  God  created  the  great  sea-monsters  and  all  the 
living  creatures  that  swim  in  the  sea  and  all  the 
different  kinds  of  birds.  And  God  saw  that  it  was 
good.  And  He  blessed  them,  and  bade  them  multi- 


196      RELIGIOUS    STOKIES   OF   THE  NEW  ISRAEL 

ply,  and  fill  the  seas,  and  the  birds  to  multiply  as 
well.  And  evening  and  morning  were  a  fifth  day. 

God  said,  "  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  all  kinds  of 
living  creatures,  cattle  and  creeping  things  and  wild 
beasts." 

So  God  made  all  the  different  kinds  of  cattle  and 
creeping  things  and  wild  beasts.  And  God  saw  that 
it  was  good. 

God  said,  "  Let  us  make  Man  in  our  image,  after 
our  likeness;  and  let  them  be  masters  of  all  the 
fishes  and  birds  and  cattle,  and  of  all  the  earth  and 
every  creeping  thing  upon  it." 

So  God  made  Man  in  His  own  image.  In  the 
image  of  God  He  created  him.  He  created  them 
male  and  female ;  and  blessed  them,  and  bade  them 
multiply,  and  rule  over  the  earth  and  all  living 
creatures ;  and  said,  "  I  have  given  you  corn  and 
fruit  for  food,  and  to  the  beasts  and  birds  and  creep- 
ing things  I  have  given  grass  for  food." 

And  God  saw  all  that  He  had  made,  and  it  was 
very  good.  And  evening  and  morning  were  the 
sixth  day. 

So  heaven  and  earth,  and  all  that  is  in  them,  were 
finished. 

On  the  seventh  day,  God  finished  His  work,  and 
rested  from  all  the  work  He  had  done.  And  God 
blessed  and  hallowed  the  seventh  day,  because  that 
in  it  He  rested  from  all  His  work  of  making  and 
creating. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FLOOD 

THIS  is  the  story  of  Noah.  Noah  was  a  pious, 
blameless  man  who  lived  in  fellowship  with  God. 
He  had  three  sons  —  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth. 

God  saw  that  all  men  had  become  very  wicked, 
and  he  said  to  Noah,  "  I  am  going  to  destroy  man- 
kind because  of  their  wickedness.  Build  yourself 
an  ark  of  wood,  with  cells  in  it  and  pitched  inside 
and  outside  with  pitch ;  an  ark  600  feet  long,  100 
feet  high,  and  60  feet  broad,  with  openings  for  light 
and  a  door  and  three  stories  of  cells.  For  I  am 
going  to  send  a  flood  to  drown  all  living  creatures. 
But  I  will  make  a  covenant  with  you  ;  and  you  and 
your  sons  and  your  wife  and  your  sons'  wives  shall 
come  into  the  ark,  and  bring  with  you  two  of  every 
kind  of  birds  and  beasts  and  creeping  things  and 
food  for  yourselves  and  for  them."  And  Noah  did 
what  God  told  him. 

In  the  600th  year  of  Noah's  life,  the  17th  day  of 
the  second  month,  all  the  fountains  of  the  great 
deep  were  broken  up,  and  the  windows  of  heaven 
were  opened.  That  very  day  Noah  and  his  family 
and  all  the  animals  went  into  the  ark.  The  waters 
rose,  and  the  ark  floated ;  they  went  on  rising,  and 

197 


198       BELIGIOUS   STORIES   OF  THE  NEW   ISEAEL 

all  the  hills  were  covered ;  they  rose  higher  still 
and  the  mountains  were  covered,  and  all  the  birds, 
cattle,  wild  beasts  and  creeping  things,  and  all  man- 
kind were  drowned. 

The  waters  went  on  rising  for  150  days.  Then 
God  remembered  Noah  and  his  family  and  the 
animals  with  him  in  the  ark ;  and  .God  made  a  wind 
pass  over  the  earth  to  dry  up  the  waters.  And  the 
fountains  of  the  deep  and  the  windows  of  heaven 
were  stopped.  On  the  17th  day  of  the  seventh 
month,  the  ark  rested  on  the  mountains  of  Ararat, 
or  Armenia.  The  waters  went  on  falling  until,  on 
the  1st  day  of  the  tenth  month,  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  were  seen.  On  the  1st  day  of  the  first 
month  of  Noah's  601st  year,  the  waters  were  gone 
from  the  earth ;  and  on  the  27th  day  of  the  second 
month,  the  earth  was  quite  dry. 

Then,  at  God's  command,  Noah  and  his  family 
and  the  animals  went  out  of  the  ark.  And  God 
blessed  Noah  and  his  sons,  and  said,  "Multiply, 
and  fill  the  world  again  with  people.  All  living 
creatures  shall  be  afraid  of  you,  and  you  shall  be 
their  masters.  You  may  eat  animals  as  well  as 
vegetables,  but  you  must  not  eat  the  blood.  I  will 
punish  any  animal  or  man  that  kills  a  man.  Only 
if  any  one  sheds  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his 
blood  be  shed ;  because  man  was  made  in  the  image 
of  God.  I  will  make  a  covenant  with  you,  and  with 
all  your  descendants,  and  with  all  living  things 
for  ever,  that  I  will  never  again  drown  all  living 


THE   FLOOD  199 

creatures  with  a  flood.  For  a  sign  of  this,  I  will 
set  my  bow  —  the  rainbow  —  in  the  cloud,  so  that 
when  the  clouds  gather  I  may  remember  the  ever- 
lasting covenant  between  Me  and  every  living  creat- 
ure, that  I  will  not  again  send  a  flood  to  drown 
them  all." 


or  THF 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 
LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  )fs^Jgi6iedia^eliela)l. 


ND\J9    '64-ftPM 


REC'D  LD 


MAR  2  3  1959 


REC'D  LD 


NOV    41959 


-, 


m 

•  S^V  *  • '  ^  i 


LD  21A-50rn-9/58 
(6889slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


YB  21 


